THE COMPANY Tagish Lake Gold Corp. (TLG: TSX-V) is a Canadian company that explores for and develops high-grade gold-silver mineral deposits in the Yukon Territory of Canada. The Company is currently focused on its wholly-owned Skukum Mineral District, located one hour by road southwest of Whitehorse. The Skukum Mineral District holds three known gold-silver deposits and several identified exploration targets.
Tagish Lake Gold is listed for trading under the symbol TLG on the TSX Venture Exchange. Approximately 11 per cent of the outstanding shares are controlled by insiders, and 10 per cent are institutionally held.
Extension of the underground workings on the zones identified in drilling at Skukum Creek, will be followed by another diamond drill program.
CORPORATE STRATEGY Tagish Lake Gold’s objective is to develop and profitably mine the high-grade gold-silver deposits, using a state-of-the-art, environmentally sound approach. The first step in this process (to consolidate the district) was achieved in the 2000 corporate restructuring. Current and future efforts are focused on moving to production by adding additional mineral resource through continued deposit definition, converting resources to reserves, completing process and feasibility studies as well as completing environmental assessment reports and permitting.
Skukum Mineral District Skukum is located approximately 80 km, by road, southwest of Whitehorse. The Yukon Government maintains the road system to within 20 km of the property. The property consists of 982 mining claims covering 178 km2. To date, three mineral deposits have been identified. They are: Skukum Creek (gold-silver); Mt. Skukum (gold); and Goddell Gully (gold). Several other exploration targets have also been identified. Mt. Skukum Mine operated between 1986 and 1988, producing 77,796 ounces of gold. The 270 t/d mill from that operation is owned by Tagish Lake Gold Corp., and can be upgraded to process ores from all three deposits.
Goddell Gully Deposit located five km to the east of the Mt. Skukum mill, is a fault-controlled gold-antimony deposit, also hosted in the mid-cretaceous granodiorites. It consists of multiple sub-parallel veins within a 50-metre-wide zone of intense shearing, brecciation and alteration. The main gold-bearing zone (P.D. Zone), located 400 metres below surface, has been explored over a 400-metre strike length and 170 metres of vertical extent. It remains open in all directions.
Mt. Skukum Deposit five km. northwest of Skukum Creek, is hosted in pyroclastic and prophyritic andesitic rocks in the Mt. Skukum Volcanic Caldera Complex. Gold mineralization at Mt. Skukum is associated with epithermal quartz-carbonate veining Three zones have been identified. The Main Cirque Zone ranged from one to 40 metres in width and was mined between 1986 and 1988. The Lake Zone contains inferred gold resources and consists of three sub-parallel steeply-dipping veins. The Brandy Zone occurs as a narrow, high-grade stock-work of veins.
Exploration Potential: Literally hundreds of gold showings have been identified on the property and several areas have excellent potential for the discovery of additional deposits. Two areas with high potential are the Ridge Zone, the western extension of the Kuhn Zone, with a drill intercept of 8.44 g/t gold and 260 g/t silver over 11.67 metres; and the Ridge Zone, with several drill intercepts, including 10.59 g/t gold and 89.4 g/t silver, over 10.59 metres. The zones are open and will be defined with the current drilling program.
Resource Inventory: Resource estimates for the Skukum Creek and Goddell Gully deposits were calculated by MineTech in 2003, and updated in August 2007. Presently there is a total of 482,000 in situ ounces of gold and 6,400,000 in situ ounces of silver.
Table 1: Resource Inventory: Skukum Property
Resource Category
(4 g/t Cutoff)
Tonnage
(t)
Gold
(g/t)
Silver
(g/t)
Measured
Rainbow Zone
151,000
4.00
280
Kuhn Zone
44,000
12.10
104
Indicated
Rainbow Zone
500,000
6.40
209
Kuhn Zone
220,000
5.70
134
Rainbow Two, Berg
110,000
8.80
108
Ridge Zone
46,000
6.00
167
P.D. Zone
360,000
10.30
---
M & I Total
1,431,000
6.57
153
Inferred
Rainbow Zone
40,000
5.80
236
Kuhn Zone
34,000
4.30
131
Ridge Zone
51,000
6.50
186
Rainbow Two, Berg
81,000
8.40
106
P.D. Zone
310,000
8.80
---
Lake Zone
109,000
13.40
---
Inferred
625,000
8.90
44
PRE-FEASIBILITY STUDY The Pre-Feasibility Study, updated in October 2007, was based on the updated resource estimate using US$650 gold, US$10.00 silver and C$0.90 exchange rate, indicated a net cash flow of C $27 million and a pre-tax IRR of 19.3%. The study was based on a through-put of 270,000 tonnes per year, at a grade of 5.78g/t gold, and 159 g/t silver, and estimated average operating costs of C $100 per tonne. An external dilution rate of 20 per cent at zero grade was used. The projected production was 43,000 troy ounces of gold and 1,100,000 troy ounces of silver for every full year of operation. A combination of sub-level retreat and shrinkage-stopping mining methods were modeled. Metal recoveries were estimated at 90 per cent for gold and 77 per cent for silver.
MANAGEMENT
Sun Feng, Chairman and Director Mr. Sun Feng is the director general of Northwest Mining and Geology Group for Nonferrous Metals (“NWME”) and the chairman of Northwest Nonferrous International Investment Company Ltd., with nearly 30 years in geology, mining and the nonferrous metals metallurgy and manufacturing field.
Robert Chafee, Director
Mr. Chafee has been involved in the mining industry since 1957, originally in Elliot Lake, Manitouwadge and Sudbury, as well as in Northwestern Quebec, Manitoba, British Columbia and the Yukon. Currently he is Chairman and Director of several trucking and contracting companies.
Graham C. Dickson, Chief Executive Officer, President and Director
Mr. Dickson has been working in the Mining Industry in North America for the last 24 years. He has acted as general manager of a turnkey construction company for gold milling facilities in remote locations, including the Snip Mill for Cominco Ltd., Golden Patricia Mill for Bond Gold and Seabee Mill for Claude Resources.
Ren Xiaohua, Director
Mr. Ren Xiaohua is a senior geologist with more than 27 years experience in geological exploration and mine development. Mr. Ren currently is vice chief geologist of Northwest Mining and Geology Group for Nonferrous Metals (“NWME”)and is in charge of geological exploration.
Neil J.F. Steenberg, Director
A practicing lawyer for more than 30 years, Mr. Steenberg has specialized in corporate finance, securities and mining law, advising clients on structuring initial public offerings, private placements and other financings as well as mergers and acquisitions and mineral exploration and development agreements.
Peter Holbek, Director
Mr. Holbek has 28 years experience in mineral exploration and mine development. Mr. Holbek is the current Vice President, Exploration of Copper Mountain Mining Corp. (TSX) and, he has served as Vice President, Exploration for Atna Resources Ltd. for six years and prior to that as Exploration Manager and Mine Geologist for Princeton Mining Ltd.
John H. Resing, CPA, Director
Most recently Mr. Resing served as independent Chair of the Board of Directors and Audit and Governance Committees of Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. (TSX: PTQ), a Canadian gold mining company with principal operations in Panama. In addition, Mr. Resing has a cumulative 15 years of experience as independent director of three SEC reporting companies.
Graham H. Scott, Corporate Secretary
A practicing lawyer, Mr. Scott represents many Canadian public companies which are listed on the TSX and TSX Venture Exchanges, in addition to clients in the corporate finance business. Mr. Scott also represents a diverse group of clients in the mining industry, ranging from individual prospectors to multinational mining companies.
Denis Lampron, CA, MBA - Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Lampron has over 20 years’ experience in maufacturing, natural resources and metallurgy. He was CFO of a private oil & gas producer, and a mineral exploration company. He has overall responsibility for financial management, directing the financial planning and control, tax, treasury, risk management and budgeting.
