No waiver for Goldstream-Willa (May 19, 2003)

Vancouver — The British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office will not grant the Goldstream-Willa gold project a waiver under the environmental assessment process.

The move came as a surprise to project-owner Orphan Boy Resources (ORS-V), which was told by consultants that any environmental issues could be addressed through project design and under provincial legislation and regulations. The project will now have to go through a potentially lengthy review.

Late last year, the rising price of bullion prompted the junior to speed up its production feasibility study for Goldstream-Willa. The capital cost of restarting the Goldstream mill was initilally projected to be $4 million. Now, however, proposed changes to the mill feed will require new estimates.

Despite the setback, the junior aims to continue work on a feasibility study, which calls for 500 tonnes per day to be mined from underground at the Willa deposit. The material would then be trucked to the Goldstream mill, near Revelstoke.

Meanwhile, exploration aimed at expanding the Willa deposit will continue.

Based on 556 drill holes and 2,570 metres of underground development, the Willa deposit hosts a measured resource of 487,989 tonnes grading 6.77 grams gold and 11.6 grams silver per tonne, plus 0.97% copper. The figure is based on a cutoff grade of 3.5 grams gold per tonne.

The indicated resource is 292,457 tonnes grading 5.31 grams gold, 11.94 grams silver and 0.65% copper. In the inferred section are some 216,177 tonnes grading 6.55 grams gold, 0.57% copper and 7.32 grams silver.

Orphan Boy picked up the property last year by agreeing to pay $300,000 to the vendors by July 1, 2004.

Orphan Boy has 4.9 million shares outstanding, and 6.6 million fully diluted.