Sultan Minerals Receives Environmental Baseline Report for the Jersey-Emerald Project

VANCOUVER, BC - Sultan Minerals Inc. reported that Wardrop Engineering Inc. has completed a report on a 12-month environmental baseline study carried out over its Jersey-Emerald property, located 10 km south of the community of Salmo in southeastern BC. The report represents another milestone in Sultan's efforts to expedite the re-opening of this historic tungsten and lead-zinc producer which was formerly owned and operated by Placer-Dome.
The Wardrop report documents an aquatic environmental baseline study conducted for Sultan in and around the Jersey-Emerald property from August 2007 to July 2008. The study was conducted in support of a proposal for future certification under the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Act to provide a basis for assessing the potential effects of the project on the aquatic environment. The study included sampling stations located over and adjacent to the historic mine. Study components included water quality, hydrology, aquatic biology, and fish and fish habitat.
The report notes a couple of interesting factors worthy of mention:
1. There was no clear indication that the old Jersey-Emerald mine site was affecting the aquatic habitat downstream of the mine workings.
2. Lime Creek, which drains the majority of the historic mine site, does not support a fish community and is therefore not direct fish habitat.
In May 2007, a NI 43-101 scoping study completed by Wardrop demonstrated that the Jersey-Emerald Tungsten deposits could support a potentially commercial 1,100 t/day mining operation at a tungsten APT price of $244/MTU. The price of tungsten has since remained relatively stable.
The PEA was based on a measured and indicated resource of 2.51 million tons averaging 0.37% WO3 and an additional inferred resource of 1.21 million tons averaging 0.40% WO3, both at a cut off grade of 0.15% WO3. The report suggested that the economics of the operation would be substantially improved by expanding the tungsten resource with additional diamond drilling in order to justify a 2,000 t/day operation.
Sultan has since completed approximately 20,000 metres of diamond drilling in 87 diamond drill holes and is awaiting results of an updated tungsten resource estimate being carried out by Giroux Consultants. The updated NI 43-101 compliant resource report is expected to be available in early January.