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September 11, 2014 --- Vol. 08, No. 37September 2014

Yukon Territory

COPPER – Western Copper and Gold Corp. Sept. 10 said its wholly-owned subsidiary, Casino Mining Corp., has signed a letter of intent with M3 Engineering & Technology Corp. for the operation and maintenance of a mine at the Casino copper project in Yukon Territory. The letter of intent outlines the general terms and scope by which M3 will operate the heap leach and concentrator processing facilities at Casino and provide procurement and contract management services to Casino Mining. Under the direction of Casino Mining, M3 will manage all aspects of day-to-day operations at the mine site and the port of export, including mining, contract maintenance of mining equipment, power plant operations and maintenance, concentrate storage and load-out, and other support services contracts. Western said this arrangement enhances its ability to finance, build and operate the Casino mine and is expected to provide substantial benefits while having minimal impact on project economics. The benefits include: reduced start-up risks due to the continuity of M3 resources and expertise from the engineering, procurement and project management-phase through to commissioning and operations; effective cost control due to M3’s considerable experience and expertise in contract management; financing flexibility due to the project’s increased attractiveness to potential partners and acquirers that have limited operating capabilities; and access to M3’s resources and external network. Western said this approach will reduce its cash flow requirements until the project receives full notice to proceed and provides Casino Mining the opportunity to organically grow its in-house expertise over a number of years. “The proposed arrangement will be key to the successful development of Casino. Having an experienced group of operators like M3 lead the transition from the construction phase to full operation will improve production efficiency while maintaining cost control,” explains Western Chairman and CEO Dale Corman. “As we achieve additional permitting milestones and secure financing for Casino next year, having operating capability will increase the number of potential financing options available to the company.” A significant component of M3’s compensation will be tied to mutually agreed-upon measureable key performance indicators relating to production, safety, and environmental performance. The two parties expect to finalize terms of a definitive agreement by mid-2015. M3 is a privately held firm that offers a diverse field of services to a broad international client base. The Tuscon, Arizona-based engineering firm has extensive experience building and commissioning mining projects around the world. Its clients include Goldcorp Inc., Freeport-McMoRan Inc. and Newmont Mining Corp.

GOLD – Goldstrike Resources Ltd. Sept. 9 reported that a three-dimensional induced polarization survey has outlined a large chargeability anomaly with strong gold potential at its Plateau South property, Yukon Territory. This anomaly underlying Gold Dome is interpreted to represent disseminated mineralization similar to that associated with high gold grades found in surface grab samples and drill core. The core of the IP anomaly measures approximately 200 meters by 100 meters, and extends from about 100 meters below surface to at least 200 meters depth, the survey limit. The shallowest part of the chargeability anomaly on Gold Dome is located immediately east of the VG zone, which means that the 2013 drilling, which intersected high grade gold mineralization, did not test the anomaly. The Gold Dome discovery hole, PSVG13-03, intersected 7.6 grams per metric tons gold over 9.03 meters. An initial projection of IP data to surface suggests the inferred mineralized body strikes northwest- southeast and may have a northwest or southeast plunge, consistent with major folds that are now believed to be a major control on the distribution of gold across the entire property, including the Goldstack zone, where hole PSGS13-04 intersected 2.28 g/t gold over 53 meters, including 10.91 g/t gold over 10.0 meters. Given the success of this high resolution IP survey in outlining disseminated mineralization in the highly silicified felsic volcanic host rocks on Gold Dome, Goldstrike is planning additional high resolution ground IP surveys to outline similar drill targets in numerous other areas on the property where gold mineralization up to 308.49 g/t have been found, including the Goldstack zone, Goldbank trend, Ron Stack trend, and Gold Rush zone. “We are very pleased to have identified such a compelling target in the Gold Dome area,” said Goldstrike Chief Geologist Trevor Bremner. “The geophysicists have stated that the quality of the data is excellent due to the high resistivity of the rock, which made for very clean readings. We look forward to drill-testing this anomaly at the earliest opportunity.” Results from Goldstrike’s 2014 exploration program on the Lucky Strike property in the White River gold district are expected in the near future.

NICKEL – First Point Minerals Corp. Sept. 4 provided an update on its 2014 exploration and plans to advance its Mich nickel-iron alloy property, located 50 kilometers (31 miles) southeast of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Preparations are being made to conduct a helicopter-supported drill program this month at Mich. The 1,000-meter program is designed to test the central portion of the key target area, with two angled holes drilled in opposite directions from the same set-up. “We have defined a very promising, sizable drill target at Mich that exhibits coarse awaruite grains, Davis Tube magnetically-recovered nickel grades in excess of 0.1 percent and strong favorable structural controls,” said First Point Vice President of Exploration Ron Britten. The objective of this limited drilling program is to conduct a preliminary test of subsurface continuity of the nickel-iron alloy mineralization. The Mich claims cover 1,932 hectares and are underlain by serpentinized ultramafic rocks of the Cache Creek Terrane, the same belt of rocks that host the awaruite mineralization at First Point’s 40 percent-owned Decar project in central British Columbia. “We see a lot of striking similarities between Mich and our Decar project in terms of recoverable nickel grade, high temperature environment of emplacement and structural controls,” explained Britten. The Mich property lies just 15 kilometers (nine miles) off the Alaska Highway and 200 kilometers (125 miles) by road from the port of Skagway, Alaska. It is accessible by an all-terrain vehicle trail. The Mich property was staked after discovery of a large anomalous zone of disseminated awaruite mineralization, a nickel-iron alloy, based on a first pass of wide-spaced reconnaissance sampling during the summer 2011 regional exploration program. Geological mapping and rock sampling to date have defined a 2,000-meter-long northwest-southeast trending zone of disseminated awaruite mineralization marked by a number of strong rock anomalies grading better than 0.08 percent Davis Tube magnetically-recovered nickel. The key target is located on the southeastern end of a low ridge and measures 540 meters long and 290 to 570 meters wide, remaining open to the southeast towards the valley floor where overburden masks the bedrock. DTR nickel values for 75 rock samples collected in 2012 and 2013 range from 0.046 percent to 0.143 percent. A well-defined magnetic geophysical feature associated with the key target mineralization, measures 3,400 meters long and extends along strike to the southeast where it is covered by glacial till and alluvial overburden. Additional detailed mapping and channel rock sampling were completed last month. This work has focused on a 750-metre-long, 140 to 450-metre-wide, northwestern extension of the key target area, based on promising structural controls, alteration and nickel grades. Assay results from last month’s sampling are pending.

GOLD – Golden Predator Mining Corp. Sept. 4 reported that results from gravity recoverable gold tests done on three samples from the 3 Aces project in the Yukon Territory have returned recoveries of 86.9-95.8 percent. The 3 Aces property consists of 1,108 contiguous quartz claims (23,000 hectares or 56,833 acres) located in southeast Yukon. The property is located along the Nahanni Range Road, which accesses the operational Cantung Mine located 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the north. The GRG testing was completed on three 20-kilogram sub-samples taken from three larger volume samples collected at the 3 Aces project’s Sleeping Giant Zone for metallurgical and mineralogical characterization test work this summer. The three samples will now be processed in their entirety in bulk fashion to measure total gold recovery from each of the 600- to 800-kilogram samples. Prior to the gravity recoverable gold tests, SGS Canada Inc. completed screen metallic assays on three 2-kilogram sub-samples split from the larger volume samples. The screen metallic assays compare very well with the gravity tests and indicate that routine large pulp (about two kilograms at minus 10 mesh) screen metallic assays should provide reliable assays going forward in exploration and delineation of the high-grade coarse gold mineralization at the 3 Aces project. The remaining material from each large sample is now being processed for total gold recovery with gravity methods and processed in bulk fashion. A representative split from the tails of each sample will be subjected to test for identification of additional gold recovery by traditional mineral process techniques by grinding the tails to 75 microns and leaching with cyanide. Results from the processing of the complete large samples should be available in the fourth quarter of 2014.

The 3 Aces property contains a number of quartz veins and vein zones that cut Cambrian-aged limestone, shale, quartz grits and pebble chert conglomerates of the Hyland Group. Previous sampling and exploration by Golden Predator (formerly Northern Tiger) has outlined extensive gold-in-soil anomalies over nine square kilometers (3.5 square miles), including numerous high-grade gold showings.


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