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| February 13, 2007 Playfair Makes Significant Progress at Grey River | |
| NR-2007-03 Playfair Mining is pleased to report that the company has started a search for a full-time Project Manager to focus on advancing Playfair's wholly-owned Grey River tungsten deposit towards production. Playfair will be advertising for this Project Manager position in industry trade publications as well as within more general national media publications. The Project Manager's sole responsibility will be to advance the Grey River deposit towards production in the most time-efficient and economically attractive manner for shareholders. The Project Manager will be expected to create a detailed mining plan for the project for consideration and evaluation by management and outside mining consultants engaged by the company. Advertising for this position will begin on Friday, February 16th, 2007. In preparation for this next stage of property advancement, Playfair has contracted Newfoundland Mine Services Incorporated to rehabilitate the access to the underground entrance. This work will include improving the road from Grey River to the portal, reinforcing the existing bridge, excavating the portal and old dump site area, re-timbering the portal area, and laying track at the entrance. This work will be supervised by Donald Seymour of Baie Verte, Newfoundland. Mr. Seymour has 37 years of mining experience including supervisory roles in mining development and production. The cost estimate for this preliminary work is approximately $53,000 Canadian funds and a crew from Newfoundland Mine Services Incorporated has been mobilized to start this work. The improvement work on the property infrastructure noted above is being completed to allow the company to cost effectively obtain a 5 tonne bulk sample that is representative of the deposit above the current adit for metallurgical testing. This will likely require taking small slashes from raises that have already been driven, totaling approximately 10 tonnes of material that would then be removed to surface for crushing, sampling and mixing at a metallurgical laboratory. Once this bulk sample is obtained, Playfair intends to retain SGS Minerals Services in Cornwall, England to perform pilot scale test work on the material. Playfair Mining has received a proposal for pilot scale test work from SGS Minerals Services relating to metallurgical testing of the above 5 tonne representative bulk sample. The cost estimate provided to Playfair from SGS for this proposed metallurgical work equates to approximately $98,000 CDN. According to the SGS Minerals Services, "The purpose of the test work is to verify the metallurgical performance of this ore predicted in earlier test work (Phase 2 Metallurgical Scoping Test Work Report on a Sample of Wolframite Ore) and to demonstrate the technical viability of the conceptual flowsheet proposed in Phase 2." SGS Minerals Services is recognized worldwide as the premier independent bankable testing and consulting organization, serving clients in the mining, metals, minerals and environmental industries. Playfair is also developing Phase II of a drill program to further define and expand the high grade Risby tungsten deposit, located in Yukon, Canada. Current Tungsten Market Playfair Mining's focus on advancing its Canadian tungsten projects towards production comes at a time of strong tungsten prices (relative to prices experienced prior to 2005). Tungsten is an extremely hard, heavy, steel-grey to white metal that is remarkable for its robust physical properties and vast uses and cannot be substituted in many industrial applications. Tungsten is a strategic metal and emerging economies such as India and China are consuming increasing amounts of tungsten. Until 2005, China was the world's largest exporter of tungsten concentrate but rapid industrialization within China, structural economic changes, and changes in economic policies towards industry have resulted in the restriction of tungsten exports from China. China is now the world's largest consumer of tungsten. Escalating Chinese consumption, in conjunction with the ongoing demand in the world's principal economies along with the supply issues noted above, has resulted in increases in the price of tungsten. Tungsten prices have increased significantly from a level of US$65-95/MTU in 2004 to an average price of approximately US$250 in 2006. Tungsten prices are generally quoted per Metric Ton Unit ("MTU" - one hundredth of a metric ton of 1,000 kilograms) of contained tungsten trioxide (WO3). One MTU contains 10 kilograms of WO3 and is the standard weight measure of the tungsten trade. Ammonium Paratungstate ("APT") is an intermediate product in the production of tungsten metal for which prices are available. A price of US$250 per MTU equates to US$25 per kilogram or US$11.26 per pound. About the Company Playfair owns 4 tungsten deposits*, Grey River (Newfoundland), Risby (Yukon), Lened (Northwest Territories) and Clea (Yukon). Playfair's primary focus has been the Grey River deposit where consistently favourble results have advanced the project towards production. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Property Tonnes % WO3 MTU's Company --------------------------------------------------------------------- Grey River 473,000 0.97 458,500 ASARCO 1970 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Risby 2,700,000 0.81 2,187,000 HBED 1982 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Lened 737,000 1.14 840,200 Union Carbide 1986 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Clea 257,000 0.93 239,000 Placer Dome 1980 ---------------------------------------------------------------------*Estimates of tungsten resources are historical in nature, predate and are noncompliant with NI 43-101. Playfair is not treating the historical estimates as current mineral resources or reserves. Playfair has not undertaken any independent investigation of the resource estimates nor has it independently analyzed the results of the previous exploration work in order to verify the resources, and therefore the historical estimates should not be relied upon. However, Playfair believes that these historical estimates provide a conceptual indication of the potential of the occurrences and are relevant to ongoing exploration. Mr. Michael Moore, P. Geo is the qualified person who has reviewed the technical information contained in this release on behalf of Playfair. Visit our website at www.playfairmining.com for more information. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "D. Neil Briggs" D. Neil Briggs President and Director No Stock Exchange has Approved or Disapproved the Information Contained Herein. The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. | |