Exploration news (January 01, 2006)

Two high-grade zones traced at Campbell gold mine

Exploration conducted by Placer Dome has discovered two high-grade zones on its Campbell gold mine property. First, the Red Lake High Grade zone (HGZ), now mined by Goldcorp at its adjacent Red Lake mine property, has been traced into the Campbell property. It has proven and probable reserves grading 50.10 g/t Au, according to Goldcorp. Separately, the Deep Campbell development has discovered another high-grade mineralized zone (DC zone). This structure has been confirmed over a continuous length of 100 m down-dip and contains significant visible gold.

Placer Dome’s initial drill hole, 75 m onto the Campbell property and to a depth of 2,590 m, intersected the HGZ structure as expected. The weighted uncut average interval of the core assayed 23 g/t Au over 3.4 m, including 122 g/t Au over 0.6 m. The HGZ was readily visible in the core sample.

The conceptual model for the HGZ predicts a possible vertical extent of over 700 m on the western extent of the Campbell property, approximately 1,000 horizontal metres from current working areas. Exploration drilling within this area will continue to better define the extent of the HGZ, utilizing Campbell’s 40 Level hanging wall exploration drill drift, scheduled for completion in mid-2006.

The Deep Campbell development targets the DC zone first outlined by drilling in 2002. The zone lies about 1,800 m below surface, and mining there tested a 50-m vein structure that averaged 135 g/t Au uncut over 3.4 m. Drilling the down-plunge extent of the DC zone between 1,800 and 1,950 m has returned up to 455 g/t Au uncut over 0.8 m. Drilling at a depth of 2,185 m has also returned “significant results”. Placer Dome estimated that at the end of 2004, the DC zone contained indicated resources of 261,984 tonnes at 24.14 g/t Au.