Imperial Metals shipping first concentrate

Vancouver – With resumption of mining at Mount Polley well underway, Imperial Metals (III-T) is shipping its first load of concentrate.

The 11,500 tonne shipment grades about 24.5% copper, 27.9 grams gold per tonne and 76.2 grams silver per tonne, containing 5.6 million pounds of copper, 9,340 oz. of gold and 23,700 oz. of silver.

Initial production has mostly come from lower grade stockpiled ore supplemented with material from the Bell and Wight pits. About 117,000 tonnes of ore grading 0.56% copper and 0.14 gram gold was delivered to the mill from the new Wight pit.

The recently reactivated 20,000 tonne per day operation, located near Williams Lake in south-central British Columbia, is on track to produce 60 million pounds of copper, 50,000 oz. of gold and 250,000 oz. of silver in 2006.

Drilling of a copper oxide showing known as the Pond zone, located one km south of the mill, returned a discovery intersection of 51 metres grading 0.9% copper, 0.7 gram gold and 11.7 grams silver in hole PZ05-01.

Imperial’s drill effort includes further holes on the 92 zone, 200 metres north of its Northeast zone, where initial drilling intersected up to 70 metres grading 0.5% copper, 0.5 gram gold and 4.4 grams silver.

Additionally, drilling on the company’s Southeast Zone, located one km southeast of the mill, identified additional mill feed with a high gold to copper ratio and low stripping ratio, which can be blended with high grade copper ore from the Wight Pit.

Investors appreciated the news, driving up Imperial’s share price over 12% to the $6.70 per share level. The rejuvenated copper producer has a market capitalization of $190 million based on its 28.1 million shares issued.