Pacific Booker Minerals

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“Infrastructure is everything” Gregory Anderson, CEO at Pacific Booker Minerals (PBM) says.

And he is quite right, especially when you look at the huge savings and advantages the company are set to enjoy at their Morrison property, located in Central British Columbia, Canada 35 km north of the Village of Granisle.

“We have high speed roads that go right through our property due to previous mining and forestry in the area over the years.  Granisle is within commuting distance from the project – that’s a town that was built by Noranda Mining (known today as Xstrata Mining) for mining and we also have power nearby.  We made a deal with Xstrata Mining  just over a year ago where we’ll be able to run the power from their sub-station at Bell, only about 29 clicks south of us, right up the road to our property” Anderson explains.

“That and deep sea shipping ports are within 250 clicks so all of these things that we need are already there for us and it’s going to save us hundreds of millions of dollars in constructing this project.”

Aside from this huge step up, PBM’s Morrison project is something really special. Anderson recalls their investigatory efforts that lead them to the Morrison deposit.

“PBM formerly known as Booker Gold, in 1992 began exploration on the Hearn Hill property and in time deemed it too small to be a standalone project. So to augment the Hearne Hill we looked for another deposit nearby. Being located in a prolific mining belt around the Babine Lake where Noranda had mined two other mines from the 1960’s to the early 90’s called the Bell Copper and the Granisle Mines we found that within a mile and half of the Hearne Hill was the Morrison deposit discovered by Noranda but never mined.” Anderson recalls.

“So we negotiated a deal with Noranda, did a little exploratory work on the Morrison and came to the conclusion that the Morrison was worth continuing to explore.  Eventually we bought Noranda out and today own the Morrison property 100 percent with no NSR.  With that said we raised the appropriate capital and drilled out the Morrison over about a five year period. Then subsequent to that we’ve just moved forward with the project. We completed a NI 43-101 compliant Technical Report last year and this year a positive feasibility study as well as having our TOR ( terms of reference) approved and published by the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office. Next we file our application for an Environmental Assessment Certificate which we have already been working on for the past five years.  With the certificate we can apply for our mining permits to begin construction.  We soon will have our production dates on this project so it’s definitely very exciting.” There is a more detailed history of the Morrison on www.pacificbooker.com.

In fact, it doesn’t look like it will be long before PBM gets to that point.

THE MORRISON PROJECT
“The size of the project in minable reserves is about 224,500,000tonnes grading at about .42 copper equivalents.  The reserve contained metals is about 1.6 billion pounds of copper, 1,153,000 ounces of gold,   20 million pounds of molybdenum and we also have approximately 11 million ounces of silver.”  Gregory says that these numbers are very conservative due to the fact that they are based on the minable reserve from the feasibility study and a 21 year mine life. “We know that the project probably runs quite a bit longer than this because there’s blue sky around the area”

The study goes on to explain that the Morrison will be open pit, developed in four phases processing 30,000 tonnes/day producing 155,000 tonnes of concentrates/year. Has a NPV(Net Present Value) at an 8% discount of almost half a billion dollars and a IRR(Internal Rate of Return) of 20%.  Gregory goes on to say that the project is going to be state-of-the-art.  “In 2007 we did a HPGR/SAG Mill trade off study and concluded HPGR (High Pressure Grinding Rollers) was the way to go.  We have already tested our ore at Polysius’s Corporate Headquarters in Germany and we know it’s going to work.  By using HPGR, although initially it’s a little more costly, proved that it would save us as much as 23% in operating cost alone.  That’s electricity, consumables, down time and .67cents/tonne.  It looks like Polysius will be providing us our ball mills as well.

The environmental awareness of the company is by no means limited to toeing the legislative line either.

“The other factor as far as electricity goes is that we’re going green, we will be using hydroelectricity. We’re working out a deal with B.C Hydro right now where we’ll get cheap electricity from this renewable and sustainable source.  We’re also contemplating using liquefied natural gas for our trucks so our carbon print for this project is going to be extremely small” Anderson says.

“The biggest challenge for any mining company these days is environmental; respecting the land and putting together the right type of base lines and research stats so that when you go in to do a project  you respect the people and respect the land.”

And cost structure is another interesting aspect of the PBM plan.

DEBTLESS
“The important thing to understand about “PBM” is that we own this project 100 per cent. There’s no net smelter returns, we’re located in a very mining friendly country here in British Colombia, Canada and we have absolutely no debt. But that is not all.

“The other thing to understand is the capital structure of this company.  We’ve got 11.4 million shares out and 13.5 fully diluted. We trade of the New York stock exchange under the symbol PBM and we trade on the Toronto Venture exchange under the symbol BKM.” 

So what is next for this highly advanced exploration-come-operation company?

“Mr Anderson says, I’ve been asked that many times of late.  We’ve had many inquiries from all around the world and a great response to our project.  Currently we have not struck any arrangements.  Meanwhile, with our well rounded, experienced team of Directors and Managers, we will continue with bringing this project to fruition.” 

Pre-existing infrastructure? Check. Environmentally aware? Check. Technologically advanced? Check.  Great management?  Check. Financially advantageous? Check.  We could go on.

Pacific Booker Minerals are teetering on the edge of a world-class, breakthrough project. By just 2012 they look set for operation, and not only operation, but some of the greenest, most sustainable, most profitable around.