60,800,974 shares
Metanor Receives Positive Preliminary Economic Assessment on Barry and Bachelor
October 30th, 2007 - Val-d'Or, Quebec, Canada: Metanor Resources Inc. (MTO: TSX-V) is pleased to announce the results of a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) on its Barry and Bachelor Projects located north of Qu�bec, and completed by Geostat International Inc.
Conclusions and Recommendations
. Following the positive results of the estimated Cash Flow, Geostat is recommending to the owners to advance the properties in the direction of a commercial production.
. Geostat also recommends that Metanor should proceeds with a prefeasibility study in order to confirm the recommendation.
. Before proceeding to the next prefeasibility phase, Geostat recommends that Metanor should prepare the followings:
At the Barry property
1. Better evaluate the full economic benefit of the treatment of a bulk sample.
2. Define the cost saving resulting from the ore crushing at Barry-1 before sending
it to Bachelor. In the Cash Flow no cost reduction has been applied to that operation.
3. Reassess the economic impact of the royalties, especially those of the Barry-1 property.
4. Perform additional fill-in drilling to better define the known mineralized zones.
5. Explore the surroundings of the proposed open-pit to avoid stockpiling waste or overburden over possible mineralized areas.
6. Complete the survey of the topography and all the drill holes that have not already been surveyed in the area of the Barry-1 property.
7. Realize a detailed new description of some of the old drill core to better understand the correlation between the mineralized envelopes and the geology of Barry.
8. Continue the exploration around the proposed East Pit and West Zone where the presence of mineralized zones could add resources to the exiting ones.
The costs of the recommended works at Barry-1 before the pre feasibility study include Ore definition at the
Bulk Sample area, Exploration under the stockpiling areas, Resources in-fill drilling, General expanding drilling, Pre-feasibility study and Bulk sample exploitation for a total of $3,625,000.
At the Bachelor property
1. Proceed to replace the existing hoist.
2. Initiate the shaft deepening to give access to the ore portion that is below the level twelve.
3. Proceed to the development of the proposed ore undercuts to have a full understanding of the geology and to assay the mineralized zones.
4. Realize an infill drilling program estimated to 20,000ft.
The total of all these recommended workings before the prefeasibility study include Hoist & head frame repairs, Shaft sinking with services - 675ft, Excavation of undercuts, In-fill drilling and Prefeasibility study for a total of $12,490,900.
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Capital Expenditure (CAPEX)
Barry
The CAPEX that is applied against the revenues of Barry is the refurbishing of the mill at 500 tons/day, the increase to 750 tons per day, the tailing pond studies and rehabilitation and a provision for the exploitation closure. Barry-1 CAPEX including Mill refurbishing at 500 tons per day, Mill increase to 750 tons per day, Tailing pond rehabilitation and Exploitation closure provision is $6,208,000.
Bachelor
Bachelor CAPEX includes Hoist installation, Service building and Warehouse, Compressors and generators repairs, Shaft sinking, ore & waste pass, Camp, Level developments (12-13-14-15-16), Equipment acquisition and Mine closure provision for a total of $18,777,779. The above amount will be needed over a period of 18 to 24 months depending of the owners' development schedule. For the Cash Flow estimate the costs are distributed over a period of 22 months.
Metallurgical Recovery
Barry Ore
A bench-scale test work performed in 2006 on two composites samples of gold bearing ore at Queen's University in Ontario has returned results demonstrating that conventional cyanide method provided the highest extraction of gold yielding results of 94.2% to 97.5%. A copy of the report was transmitted by Metanor. A two (2) pages document describing the content of composite sample is produced in Title 15 (Item 18) of the actual report, and the complete report from Queen's is shown in the appendices of the report. In the economic study of Barry 1, a recovery of 95% is used for the first four (4) months and 96% thereafter.
Bachelor Ore
In his concentrator's study M. Gilbert Rousseau is mentioning that a mill run made at the Lake Short concentrator before the shut down in 1989 reported recovery of +95%. The mill recovery for the Bachelor ore is assumed to be 96%.
Milling Costs
The estimation of the milling costs was done by Gilbert Rousseau eng, a consultant who was hired by Geostat and visited the concentrator. The cost estimation for labour, consumables and overhead is $24.97/t for an operation at 500 tons per day and $20.15/t for an operation at 750 tons per day. According to Gilbert Rousseau estimation the mill could be operated by 27 employees including the staff.
Mining Operating Costs
Barry:
East Pit Costs The excavation costs are from a contractor proposal and the milling costs are from the estimation done by M. Gilbert Rousseau. The total east open-pit costs are $26,801,145 to mine a total of 440,000t and represent $65.16 /t for milling at 500tpd and $60.34/t for milling at 750tpd. These expenses include overburden removal, waste and ore breaking, crushing of ore, transportation of ore, ore selectivity, milling and administration.
West Zone costs : The average total cost for underground mining of a total of 76,000t of ore are $6,995,340 or $92.04/t and include milling at 750tpd and include underground development, ore mining, crushing, transportation, milling and administration.
Bachelor Costs
The underground mining costs for the method chosen are Long
-hole ($61.44/t), Alimak vein mining ($66.65/t) and Shrinkage ($83.10/t). The average mining costs for all these methods and including stope development, mining and services costs is $37.51 /t. or mining cots of $66.54/t (with administration).
Economic Analysis Results
The exploitation of the two properties is generating a Net Cash Flow of $6,502,385 for the expected 73 months of operation. This Cash Flow is shown as EBITDA, (Estimated Benefit before Interest Tax Depreciation &Amortization), in other words this is a Pre-Tax Undiscounted Cash Flow. Gross revenue was estimated using a price of each ounce of gold at $660 CDN.
The situation at the end of this period will leave Metanor Resources Inc with two properties that most likely will not be exhausted, plus a running concentrator. It is also important to note that no salvage values have been given to the assets in the Cash Flow estimate.
Benefit of the Actual Tax Regime
The preliminary Cash Flow has been prepared without any tax credit or fiscal taxation advantages. In accordance with the Tax credit for resources documentation of the province of Quebec
, both properties could benefit from the provisions of the actual mining taxation regime. In the case of Barry-1 property, the advantage is related to the tax credit of the cost of the treatment of a bulk sample needed to better define the metallurgical characteristics of the ore before going into production. At the Bachelor Lake Mine property the estimated resources have to be evaluated economically and technically. A major part of these resources is located below the existing shat bottom that has to be deepened by 675ft to provide accesses to them. These development expenses qualify for tax credit.
Geostat reminds that this Preliminary Assessment is preliminary in nature, that it includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. This report is in accordance to National Instrument 43-101.
Yann Camus, Eng. Is the q
ualified person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101 working for System Geostat International Inc and responsible for the preparation of the technical report on the Barry 1 property. Gaston Gagnon and Gilbert Rousseau were the qualified persons responsible of the portion of the technical report concerning the Bachelor property.
The technical report of the preliminary assessment on Barry-1 and Bachelor properties is in accordance with NI43-101 and is available since October 16, 2007 on (www.sedar.com).
Mr. Andr� Tremblay, P Eng. is the qualified person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101 and supervised the technical information presented in the news release.
The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept any responsibility for the adequacy or the accuracy of the press release.
For further information please contact:
SERGE ROY, PRESIDENT
TEL. : 819-825-8678
E-MAIL : INFO@METANOR.CA
2872, CHEMIN SULLIVAN, BUREAU 2, VAL-D'OR (QU�BEC) J0Y 2N0
RENMARK FINANCIAL COMMUNICATIONS INC.
JASON ROY: JROY@RENMARKFINANCIAL.COM
JEN POWER: JPOWER@RENMARKFINANCIAL.COM
TEL: (514) 939-3989
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