Interesting news release.

Did the acid consumption seem high? I have no idea what the expected consumption rate is.

• Is 7.72 lb acid/lb copper excellent, good, fair, marginal or non-economic?
• Same for the 63% recovery rate - excellent, good, fair, marginal or non-economic?
• Was the acid consumption stated taking into consideration any possible re-use of the acid?

I did some googling trying to find sulfuric acid prices and they are not easy to pin down, especially current prices in North America. Prices I have found (2010 - present) have ranged between $65 and $350/ton ( $.03 to $.18/lb).

So acid costs (with admittedly questionable source) could be expected to be in the $0.25 - $1.35 range per pound of copper extracted. This is certainly only one aspect of the mining process, doesn't take into consideration shipping, reuse/regeneration factors or disposal costs - but does show that the actual cost of the acid can really effect the viability of the process. If anyone knows actual current pricing please chime in...

The in-situ process is new to me, I found some info about it on the Excelsior Mining website about the process ( http://www.excelsiormining.com/index.php/in-situ-recovery ) also pasted below if anyone is interested. I found the 18 month permitting and only 1 year to be producing pretty interesting. That is pretty nimble.

I guess what I'm trying to find out is do these preliminary results indicate reason to spend more now because they are very promising or suggest putting on hold till the market is better for raising funds or spinning off (ie: higher copper prices, money looking to get back into the Venture).

The additional testing suggested in the report - is this a significant cost or not an issue?

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What is In-Situ Recovery (ISR)?
ISR is an environmentally-friendly process by which copper can be extracted from the ground with minimal disturbance to the surface environment. ISR mining has a long history, starting with uranium mining in the 1960s. Arizona now has 9 of the 14 historical and current global copper ISR projects and has a positive track record for ISR permitting. The San Manuel copper mine, owned by BHP Billiton, was a successful operation that integrated ISR methods with open pit and underground mining and produced approximately 3.25 billion pounds of copper in 14 years of production. Two additional projects owned by BHP Billiton, Pinot Valley and the Miami Unit, also used ISR to extract copper (combined with SX-EW in the case of the Miami Unit). The Florence Copper Project, owned by Curis Resources Ltd., is located roughly 150km to the northwest of Gunnison and is host to a resource of 2.84 billion pounds of oxide copper. The project, which took only 18 months to fully permit, is set to commence production in 2012.

Advantages to In-Situ Recovery Mining:

- Lower capital and operating costs
- No waste or ore moved
- No creation of open holes, waste dumps, leach pads or tailings
- Minimal visual disturbance
- Minimal noise, dust and greenhouse gas impact
- Fewer permits are required compared to other mining processes
- More cost-effective than most other conventional mining techniques, and thus doesn't require as many "pounds in the ground" to make the mine economically viable

These advantages allow access to copper deposits not amenable to conventional mining.

How soon can an ISR mine go into production?
An ISR mine can take as little as 18 months to permit and an a year to build, while it can take at least 3 to 7 years for a conventional mine to be permitted and built. This is because there is less disturbance of ground material and considerably less destructive to the surface and sub-surface material.