EXPLORATION: Imperial Metals named BC’s top spender

BRITISH COLUMBIA - Imperial Metals of Vancouver has been named British Columbia's top mineral explorer in 2010. The mineral exploration industry spend $322 million in the province in 2010, and Imperial led the pack with expenditures of $32.6 million.

"We are proud to be a BC-based company, and are proud that the majority of our exploration work is in this province," said Imperial president Brian Kynoch. "We are convinced BC is a place where we can find and build world class mines."

The company carried out exploration at the Red Chris copper-gold project ($17.2 million, exclusive of development spending), the Mount Polley copper-gold mine ($10.3 million), the Ruddock Creek zinc-lead project ($3.7 million) and the Catface copper-molybdenum project ($1.4 million).

The results of Imperial's exploration programs are posted at www.ImperialMetals.com.