Sherwood Copper Corporation
SUITE 860-625 HOWE STREET ? VANCOUVER, BC ? V6C 2T6 ? CANADA ? TEL: (604-687-7545) ? FAX: (604-689-5041
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 27, 2008 #08-33
Sherwood Reports High Rainfall temporarily restricts access to its Minto Mine, Production not Affected
Yukon Water Board Grants Permission for Release of Treated Water from Water Storage Pond
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - Sherwood Copper Corporation (SWC: TSX-V) today announced that exceptionally high rainfall over the past several days, on top of an already wet summer, resulted in the temporary closure of the Klondike Highway to Whitehorse, flooding of its access road to its Minto Mine and excessive water inflows into its water storage pond from the surrounding hills. Despite diverting as much run-off as possible into the Phase 1 open pit (below where mining is currently occurring), the water storage pond was likely to overflow, so permission was requested from and granted by the Yukon Water Board to discharge excess stored water in a controlled manner. The Minto Mine stores water behind a dam to ensure there is sufficient water available for processing operations throughout the normally relatively dry summers and frozen winters in the Yukon. The Klondike Highway has subsequently opened to single lane traffic and repairs have begun on the mine access road. The Minto Mine is owned and operated by Minto Explorations Ltd. (?MintoEx?), a wholly owned subsidiary of Sherwood Copper Corp.
?Following last year, when our principal concern was not having enough water stored to sustain operations through the dry seasons, this year we have had to deal with a very wet summer that was topped off by a very high rainfall event over the past few days,? said Stephen Quin, President & CEO. ?Big Creek, which crosses our mine access road, rose over two metres in 24 hours, and overtopped protective dykes designed to keep water off the road during flood conditions, temporarily affecting road access to the mine. The Klondike Highway was also closed between Carmacks and Whitehorse due to flooding. Water levels are now receding and access is expected to be restored within two days,? he said. ?In addition, excessive run-off from the hills surrounding the Minto Mine quickly filled the water storage pond where water levels, despite diverting as much run-off as possible into the lower benches of the open pit (which are not currently being mined), rose half a metre in eight hours. In order to manage its water resources, we applied for, and received from the Yukon Water Board, an amendment to our water licence to discharge excess stored water. It is important to note that the stored water is non-toxic to aquatic organisms and, while slightly above discharge levels set in Minto?s water licence, is considerably below Federal standards for discharge set out in the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations. Further, this is not a discharge from a tailings pond, since the Minto Mine uses the dry stack tailings storage method, where tailings are mechanically dried and stored in a compacted storage facility, and therefore the mine has no tailings pond.?
MintoEx?s operating personnel and its environmental consultants kept the Territorial and Federal regulators and Selkirk First Nation informed at all times to ensure this rain event was closely monitored, was carefully managed and that there would be no negative consequences to the natural environment. At no time was the integrity of the dam used to retain water in the storage pond in question, since it is designed to standards well above those related to recent rainfalls.
Mine Access Road
Access to the Minto Mine from Whitehorse is via the Klondike Highway to Minto Landing, where vehicle traffic crosses the Yukon River by barge in the summer and ice bridge in the winter, before connecting to a 30km mine access road leading to the Minto Mine site. The mine access road has one bridge, over Big Creek, which has been the subject of flooding in prior years. The rapid rise in water levels in Big Creek, over three meters in the past several days and two metres in 24 hours, resulted in water overtopping the protective dykes designed to keep water off the road in flood events. Water levels in Big Creek have already started to recede and access to the mine is expected to be restored in the next two days. While concentrate trucking has been temporarily suspended, Sherwood already has a ship load of concentrates stored at the port of Skagway, which is expected to be shipped out in the next few days. Trucking of concentrates is expected to resume as soon as access is restored.
Mine site Water Levels
Given the dry summers and frozen winters in the Yukon, the Minto Mine has a water storage pond designed to hold water for use in processing copper ores in the dry seasons.. After several weeks of essentially stable water levels, the recent heavy rains resulted in very high run-off from the surrounding hills and a 0.5 metre rise in water levels in the water storage pond in eight hours, despite diverting all possible run-off water into the Phase 1 open pit (which was not being used). MintoEx had been treating the water in the storage pond over the past several weeks to reduce slightly elevated metal loadings prior to discharge and had successfully reduced metal levels to well below Federal discharge standards as set out in the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations (?MMER?), and was approaching the levels set out under the mine?s Territorial water licence. Given that the water diverted into the open pit is dirtier than the already treated water in the storage pond, MintoEx applied to the Yukon Water Board for permission to discharge water from the storage pond before pumping out the open pit and mixing the dirtier water from the pit with the treated water in the storage pond. MintoEx?s application was supported by both Federal and Territorial regulators and permission has been granted. It is important to note that the water in the storage pond has been extensively tested and has been demonstrated to be non-toxic to fish and meets MMER discharge standards. Further, the considerable run-off below the Minto mine site will have a significant dilutive effect on the water being discharged. The objective of MintoEx?s application to the Yukon Water Board was to allow for a reduction of water levels in the storage pond to provide sufficient room in the pond for continued precipitation over the remainder of the summer and fall, and for storage of the water currently contained in the open pit.
Once water levels in the storage pond are reduced, MintoEx personnel will pump out the water captured in the open pit and treat it before it is discharged. MintoEx has a water treatment plant on site to ensure waters meet the appropriate standards before discharge. Water levels in the open pit are below the level of the current Phase 3 push-back and should not affect MintoEx?s ability to meet its mine production objectives. Milling operations have continued throughout the recent days and there should be no affect on Sherwood?s production targets for the year. MintoEx continues to have air access to the mine for its personnel and crew changes.
About Sherwood Copper
Sherwood Copper?s current focus is profitable production of base and precious metals from high grade, open pit mines in Canada. Sherwood?s first operating mine, the high grade Minto copper-gold mine in Yukon, Canada, was built on budget and ahead of schedule. The Minto Mine is one of the highest-grade open pit copper-gold mines in the world, and is forecast to be a low cost producer. Aggressive exploration on the Minto property has yielded significant success, providing Sherwood the opportunity to ?grow from within? by expanding the resource and reserve base, potentially leading to further production increases. To further accelerate its production growth, Sherwood intends to pursue merger & acquisition opportunities that fit its business model and, in May 2008, Sherwood acquired 100% ownership in Western Keltic Mines, owner of the high-grade Kutcho copper-zinc-gold-silver deposit in northwestern British Columbia. Sherwood expects to lever off its successful development of the Minto Mine and advance the Kutcho project to a production decision.
Additional Information
Additional information on Sherwood and its Minto Project can be obtained on Sherwood?s website at http://www.sherwoodcopper.com.
On behalf of the board of directors
SHERWOOD COPPER CORPORATION
?Stephen P. Quin?
Stephen P. Quin
President & CEO
Investor Contacts:
Stephen P. Quin 604.687-7545 or Neil MacRae 604-687-7545
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This document may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this document and the Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's expectations or beliefs regarding future events and include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the estimation of mineral reserves and mineral resources, conversion of inferred mineral resources to the measured and indicated categories, the realization of mineral reserve estimates in mining, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production, capital expenditures, success of mining operations, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses, title disputes or claims and limitations on insurance coverage. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative of these terms or comparable terminology. By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, risks related to actual results of current exploration activities; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; future prices of metals; future currency exchange rates; conversion of mineral resources to higher confidence levels or to mineral reserves; possible variations in mineral reserves, grade or recovery rates; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; changes in the legal or regulatory regime affecting the Company?s operations; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities; as well as those factors detailed from time to time in the Company's interim and annual financial statements and management's discussion and analysis of those statements, including those for the Current Period, all of which are filed and available for review on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.
Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.