Region Overview
The Cariboo gold belt in south-central British Columbia was a world-class producer of gold. Historic gold production in the Cariboo area was approximately 3.8 million ounces, 2 million from placer operations and 1.8 million form lode deposits. These totals are an estimate only as prior to 1874 production was not recorded. 90 percent of the placer gold was recovered from Late Pleistocene, pre-glacial and interglacial gravels in buried paleo-channels of modern stream valleys. In addition, the placer operation from the Bullion pit at Likely produced 175,000 ounces of gold and 1,800 ounces of platinum. Gold and platinum were also reported in placers in the Frank Creek area in similar proportions.

In addition to placer gold operations, four underground mines - Cariboo Gold Quartz, Island Mountain, Mosquito Creek and Cariboo-Hudson - have operated in the district. Other important gold and copper-gold deposits occur near Likely, in the southwestern part of the Cariboo district. A new open-pit copper-gold deposit on Mount Polley, located 9 km southeast of Likely, is expected to be put into production soon. Measured reserves are 49 million tonnes grading 0.38% copper and 0.54 g/t gold. Inferred reserves are 230 million tonnes grading 0.25% copper and 0.34 g/t gold.

Major Projects in the Region
  Mount Polley Deposit
Mount Polley Deposit, wholly owned by Imperial Metals Corp. (III - TSX), is an open pit copper-gold mine located in central British Columbia, 56 kilometres northeast of Williams Lake. The Mount Polley deposit is hosted in an alkalic intrusive complex within the Central Quesnel Belt (CQB), a part of Quesnellia extending along the eastern margin of the Intermontaine Belt in south-central British Columbia. The property consists of a mineral lease and mineral claims encompassing approximately 9,000 hectares. The mine was commissioned in 1997 and built at a capital cost of $115 million. With a capacity of 20,000 tonnes of ore per day, it produced 133 million pounds of copper and 370,000 ounces of gold from 27.7 million tonnes of ore mined from the Cariboo and Bell pits before being idled September 2001 due to low metal prices. At that time there remained an estimated 31.9 million tonnes grading 0.36% copper and 0.34 grams per tonne gold in the Bell and as yet unmined Springer deposits for processing upon restart of mine operations. The Mount Polley deposit was discovered in the mid-1960’s by follow-up prospecting of an aeromagnetic anomaly. The deposit occurs in an alkalic intrusive complex featuring a variety of breccias related to monzonitic intrusions along a northerly trending structure within Nicola Group volcanics of late Triassic to early Jurassic age. This fault separates the overall deposit into the Cariboo, Bell, Northeast and Springer deposits, each with distinctive mineralization, alteration and breccia characteristics.

In August 2003 a discovery was made while prospecting along a logging road in a previously underexplored area in the northeast section of the Mount Polley property. Subsequent trenching and drilling outlined a deposit of high grade copper, gold and silver. Located 1.5 kilometres northeast of the Bell Pit, the Northeast Zone discovery is the exploration highlight for Imperial Metals.

  Gibraltar Copper Mine
Gibraltar Copper Mine is owned by Taseko Mines Ltd. (TKO-TSX), a Hunter Dickinson's company, is fully equipped to produce 80 million pounds of copper per year. Mining operations have begun at the Gibraltar copper mine since mid-October of 2004. Ore is now being delivered from the open pit and processed through the crushing and milling circuits.

The Gibraltar site is located in south-central British Columbia, about 65 kilometres north of Williams Lake. The original developer of the Gibraltar mine was Placer Development Limited, the predecessor of Placer Dome Inc. Copper was selling at only US$0.47 per pound when construction was approved in November 1970. The mine produced its first copper concentrate in March 1972. The price of copper nearly doubled in 1973 to about US$0.80 per pound and continued to increase the following year, enabling the mine to repay its entire $64 million bank debt in less than two years. By virtue of its debt-free status, Gibraltar has always been closely leveraged to copper prices. This means it prospers greatly during up-cycles in the metal price and has survived, tenaciously, during down-cycles.

Gibraltar was well positioned to take advantage of the copper price recovery of the late 1980s. Copper went from US$0.62 per pound in 1986 to US$1.29 per pound in 1989. In 1989, Gibraltar posted its best earnings in 10 years and paid the highest dividends in its history.

Since 1972, annual production of the Gibraltar Mine has averaged 75 million pounds of copper in a 28% concentrate, 5 million pounds of cathode copper from a solvent extraction electrowinning plant and 700,000 pounds of molybdenum in concentrate. In total, the mine has processed 290 million tonnes of ore grading 0.35% copper and 0.016% molybdenum. Gibraltar has also employed an average of 270 people, paid an average annual payroll of $15 million and expended some $5 million per year on goods and services in the Williams Lake area during mine operations. Even after a successful 27 years of production, Gibraltar has estimated sulphide mineral resources of 745 million tonnes grading about 0.3% copper at a 0.2% copper cut-off, and containing 4.7 billion pounds of copper. There are also in-pit oxide resources that would be processed in the existing solvent extraction-electrowinning plant. Taseko is confident that the in-pit mineral resources are sufficient for a minimum of 15 years production, with potential for at least an additional 15 years of production from additional resources.

Gibraltar's historic focus has been production and the availability of sufficient near-term ore reserves. As a result, the property remains under-explored, with untested potential over about 70% of the leases.