Barkerville Gold Begins Mining At QR Mine

 

VANCOUVER, BC - Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. reported that it has been advised by its mining contractor, Procon Mining and Tunnelling Ltd., that mining began as scheduled, on March 15, 2010 and that ore from the West Zone at the QR Mine is being mined, hauled and stock piled at the QR Mill ahead of commencing gold production at the facility.

Mining operations were initiated underground in the West Zone at the QR Mine with gold production and the pouring of gold dore bars scheduled to commence in Q2 of this year. The Company's 900 tonne per day mill facility is located immediately above the underground mine and is fully permitted and operational. It is the Company's objective to achieve 50,000 ounces of gold production at this facility, from a combination of ore from the QR Mine and Bonanza Ledge open pit (currently in permitting). $6,000,000 of the recently closed $13.6 million equity financing has been budgeted for start-up capital and operational expenditures to begin mining and milling operations. An estimated $34.5 million in capital expenditures by the previous operator offsets initial start-up costs for the Company.

Further, the Company reports that detailed planning is underway for a development drilling program at the North Zone. The Company anticipates this will be next zone at the QR Mine developed for mining.

The North Zone is largest zone of gold mineralization found to date at the QR Mine, with a drill indicated strike length of over 1000 meters. Previous work includes a large scale, 5 meter by 4 meter, 710-meter long decline (tunnel), which will be used to access the zone to complete further drilling and development. 23 diamond drill holes totaling 3,443 meters have been completed to date by the previous operator which will be expanded upon by the Company. An initial $4,000,000 from the recent financing has been budgeted for diamond drilling in this and several other gold resource expansion and exploration projects the Company has initiated this year.

The company’s address is

15th Floor, 675 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 1N2, (604) 669-6463, fax: (604) 669-3041.