Bucko Lake

The Bucko Lake property is located near the town of Wabowden, Manitoba, Canada approximately 105 km southwest of Thompson. The property consists of one Mining Lease totaling 546 hectares and three claim blocks totaling 416 hectares.

The 7-years life-of-mine mineral reserves at a cut-off grade of 1.4% Ni are estimated at 2,395,834 tonnes grading 1.84% Ni and 0.14% copper for 77.4 million pounds of nickel and 5.7 million pounds of copper.

Mining of 1,000 tonnes of ore per day utilizing underground contractor mining is envisaged, operating 365 days per year with underground ore hoisted to surface via the rehabilitated shaft from the 1000 Level (approximately 300 metres belowsurface). Hoisted ore will be crushed on surface and conveyed to the concentrator plant to be processed into a single primarily nickel concentrate containing minor amounts of potentially payable copper, cobalt and PGMs.

Flotation tailings will be used to produce hydraulic backfill as required by the mine schedule. Approximately one half of the tailings will be returned underground whilst the remainder will be pumped to the tailings deposition area which is located in the northern portion of Bucko Lake, to the north of the mine site. Sub-aqueous tailings disposal into the nearby Bucko Lake was selected as the best alternative on the basis of engineering, environmental considerations and cost.

Site infrastructure will include a main mill building (22.5 m wide by 44 m long), including mill offices, electrical building, maintenance shops and analytical laboratory.

The concentrate load-out area is located in a non-heated but enclosed portion of the mill building. Dump trucks will deliver concentrate to a covered railroad load-out station although the potential to truck concentrate to Winnipeg may also be an option.

During production, fresh water make-up will be supplied by a combination of surface and drilled wells. Recycling systems will be established to reuse water from the underground operations to reduce additional water consumption from the make up sources.