Selwyn Chihong Mining

It’s a place bigger than the eye can see and the mind can imagine. It’s called “The Selwyn Project” and consists of 7,450 ha of mineral claims in Yukon and 2,162 ha of Mining Lease lands in adjacent Northwest Territories.

In a word, it’s “huge” and what’s even more impressive is that it’s been deemed one of the largest undeveloped zinc-lead deposits in the world. As a result, it’s been making headlines around the globe and drawing investor interest from the international mining community.

In fact, one offshore company was so impressed with The Selwyn Project that it recently invested $100 million to advance the project to bankable feasibility and complete permitting.

Yunnan Chihong Zinc and Germanium Co. Ltd., a fully integrated zinc-lead mining and smelting company based in Yunnan Province in southern China, and Selwyn Resources Ltd. recently signed a 50:50 joint venture agreement and have formed Selwyn Chihong Mining Ltd. to advance the project closer to production.

A sure sign that the new partnership means business comes with plans for an $85-million exploration and development program of definition drilling, engineering, permitting and project financing by mid 2012.

Before that, however, the new company approved in principle a pre-development budget totalling $89 million for 2010 and 2011. Funds will be used for permitting, completion of a Wardrop Engineering feasibility study and related engineering and resource definition.

New mineral resources at The Selwyn Project are 154,350,000 tonnes grading 5.35% zinc and 1.86% lead of Indicated resources, and 234,150,000 tonnes grading 4.54% zinc and 1.41% lead of Inferred resources.

Resources include high-grade underground mineralization with 16,063,800 tonnes grading 10.25% zinc and 4.23% lead of Indicated resources, and 26,704,000 tonnes grading 8.81% zinc and 2.81% Inferred resources.

The company completed 86 definition drill holes last year for a total of 27,486.60 m between XY Central, Don and XY West deposits. The definition drilling includes 47 diamond drill holes totalling 13,994.80 m in the three main lenses in the XY Central deposit.

The NI 43-101 compliant Indicated mineral resource for the XY Central deposit is 10,738,000 tonnes grading 10.38% zinc and 4.41% lead and an Inferred mineral resource of 2,849,000 tonnes grading 10.86% zinc and 4.41% lead.

In addition to Indicated and Inferred mineral resources, extra exploration of the mineral resources remain largely open for expansion of mineral potential.

The aggregate of the mineral resources on the property in all categories clearly supports the earlier claim that The Selwyn Project is in the class of world-scale zinc deposits.