The 2008 fiscal year at Pele
Mountain, our
twelfth as a mineral exploration and development company, was
highlighted by continued progress at our 100-percent owned Eco Ridge
Mine uranium project. Our achievements this past year brought us
closer to realizing our goal of developing a new uranium mine in Elliot
Lake. Meanwhile, in response to an increasingly robust gold
market, we have reactivated our Highland Gold project and have begun
marketing our Ardeen Gold project to potential partners.
Subsequent to our fiscal year-end,
global financial conditions deteriorated rapidly as the credit crisis
gained momentum. These developments, along with sharply reduced
energy prices, have adversely impacted the share prices and work plans
of many uranium companies, including Pele. As it has become
increasingly difficult to raise significant capital on acceptable
terms, we acted decisively to preserve our treasury with the
postponement of our pre-feasibility study and certain components of the
permitting process until market conditions improve. Our team at
Eco Ridge remains intact as limited drilling, environmental monitoring,
metallurgical testing, and other lower-cost program components
continue. We have commenced preliminary discussions with
potential strategic partners that could assist in funding our
pre-feasibility and permitting programs.
In 2008, we initiated the
permitting process at Eco Ridge by filing a Project Description with
the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and the Federal Government's
Major Projects Management Office. The document details our
approach to the sustainable development of uranium operations at Eco
Ridge. Our mining, processing, and waste management plans make
innovative use of proven technologies to build a modern, state-of-the-science
facility, significantly more advanced and environmentally-friendly than
historic operations in the Elliot Lake
camp.
The underground mine will be
developed by ramps from surface, using trackless development and
longhole slashing to leave more than 60-percent of the broken ore
underground within designed containments for bioleaching. The
balance of development material (less than 40-percent) will be trucked
to surface and deposited on a heap leach facility
("HLF").. The leach cells will be designed to fully
contain the leach solutions and to allow for progressive
decommissioning. The HLF will be operated, decommissioned, and
reclaimed using methods successfully employed at other modern mine
sites around the world. No tailings pond will be required at Eco
Ridge.
Environmental impact will also be
minimized by relying on underground and surface bioleaching and through
a processing operation that recycles leachate in a closed circuit until
it is piped to the uranium recovery facility where it will be clarified
and processed in a solvent extraction circuit. The uranium will
then be extracted in a stripping circuit, and then washed, dried, and
packed into drums for shipment. Preliminary analysis of this
design indicates that the Eco Ridge Mine can be operated in a manner
that generates no liquid effluent requiring treatment.
Our 2008 achievements at Eco Ridge
included the following:
- Submission of a Project Description to regulatory
authorities.
- More than 15,000 metres of diamond drilling, primarily
to upgrade U3O8 resources.
- Tailings disposal studies, leading to an innovative
closed circuit processing plan.
- Geotechnical & hydrogeological testing of proposed
heap leach pad site and processing plant site.
- Preliminary leach pad design and plant site design by
SNC-Lavalin.
- Metallurgical testing on a 200-kilogram sample.
- Detailed variographic analysis of the Main Conglomerate
Bed.
- A scoping level hydrogeology study of the proposed
mining area.
- Aquatic and terrestrial environmental assessments.
- Continuing friendly and productive communication with
First Nations and the City of Elliot
Lake.
The Elliot
Lake mining camp was once known as "the Uranium
Capital of the World" and has produced more than 300 million
pounds of U3O8 from vast conglomerate beds.
Our Eco Ridge deposit is extremely large, outcropping for 6,000 metres
along strike with uranium mineralization intersected in holes up to
1,000 metres deep and over a dip length of about 3,800 metres. It
contains a NI 43-101 compliant resource of 6.4 million pounds of
"indicated" U3O8 (5.68 million
tonnes grading 0.051-percent U3O8) and 36.1
million pounds of "inferred" U3O8
(37.26 tonnes grading 0.044-percent U3O8) with
the potential for significant expansion. We believe that the
long-term fundamentals for uranium are robust and that Eco Ridge
contains a strategic energy resource that is well-positioned to provide
a safe, secure, and reliable long-term supply to the resurgent nuclear
power industry.
With gold prices near all-time
highs, we are increasing our efforts to realize the considerable value
in our gold projects. Subsequent to year-end we launched a
detailed data compilation program at Highland,
supported by new field work, with an aim toward improving the
marketability of the project. Highland is located approximately
100 kilometres southeast of Hemlo and includes over 10,000 acres within
the prolific Michipicoten Greenstone Belt, the site of several past
producing gold mines, including the Renabie Mine (over one-million
ounces produced) and where Richmont Mines is currently mining the
Island Gold deposit. Highland
contains at least 18 known gold occurrences, two of which have historic
underground workings and two of which have seen limited surface mining.
The region has outstanding local infrastructure including three nearby
modern milling facilities, creating the potential for revenue
generating operations at Highland.
We are also seeking to re-establish exploration at our Ardeen Gold
project through ongoing discussions aimed at creating a new strategic
partnership.
Despite challenging market
conditions, we remain very optimistic and excited about our
future. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to
again thank you for your continued support. Please feel free to
contact the Company at any time to discuss our progress, our outlook,
and our plans.
Yours truly,
Al
Shefsky
President
About Pele
Mountain
Resources
Pele Mountain Resources is focused on the sustainable development of
its Eco Ridge Mine uranium project in the historic Elliot
Lake mining camp. The Company is developing a safe,
secure, and reliable long-term source of uranium in order to deliver
lasting benefitsto local communities and its shareholders. Pele
also holds a diverse portfolio of gold, diamond, and base metal projects
in Northern Ontario. Pele stock
is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol
"GEM". For further information please contact Al
Shefsky, President, at (800) 315-7353, or visit the
Pele website at www.pelemountain.com.
The TSX-V has
not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or
accuracy of this release. Some of the statements contained in this release are
forward-looking statements, such as estimates and statements that
describe Pele's future plans, objectives or goals, including words to
the effect that Pele or management expects a stated condition or result
to occur. Since forward-looking statements address future events and
conditions, by their very nature, they involve inherent risks and
uncertainties. Actual results in each case could differ materially from
those currently anticipated in such statements. The economic viability
of the 43-101 mineral resources at Pele's Eco Ridge Mine has not yet
been demonstrated by a pre feasibility study.