Name: Myra Falls mine.

Location: The Myra Falls mine is located in a provincial park in central Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Controlling Company: Nyrstar.

Brief History: There has been more than a century of mineral exploration activity on central Vancouver Island and more than 40 years of active mining at Myra Falls.

Active mining has been conducted at Myra Falls since 1966, starting with the Lynx openpit and underground operations, followed by the Myra mine in 1969. In 1979, the H-W massive sulphide deposit was discovered, prompting the installation of new infrastructure and an expansion of the milling facilities to 2 700 t/d and later to 3 650 t/d. In 1991, the Battle and Gap deposits were discovered. The Lynx underground mine closed in 1993 and, in 1995, the Marshall deposit was discovered. In 1996, mining in the Battle-Gap zone started.

In August 2011, Nyrstar completed its acquisition of Breakwater Resources, the owner of the Myra Falls mine.

Brief Description: Myra Falls is a multimetal mine and has a long history of reserve replacement and promising exploration potential.

Mining Method: Underground.

Products: Zinc, copper and lead concentrate, with silver and gold as by-products.

Major Infrastructure and Equipment: The Myra Falls mine uses conventional flotation technology to recover sulphide concentrates. The current mill was commissioned in 1985 and has been progressively updated since then. In 1990, the copper and zinc flotation circuit was modernised by adding column flotation cells and decreasing the recirculation load to improve zinc recovery. In 1992, a Knelson gravity concentrator was added to each grinding circuit to enhance gold recovery. Concentrates are transported 90 km to the Port of Campbell River, from where they are shipped to overseas smelters.

Geology/Mineralisation: The mineral deposits comprise complex metal-zoned volcanogenic massive sulphides, contained in the 450-m-thick Myra formation of the Sicker Group volcanic assemblage. The Myra formation hosts a geologically diverse collection of mineralised bodies including polymetallic massive sulphides, polymetallic disseminated sulphides, zoned pyritic massive sulphides and stringer sulphide zones. The principal minerals are sphalerite, pyrite and chalcopyrite, with minor galena, bornite, tennantite and locally significant secondary copper.

Reserves: Total proven and probable reserves, according to a report published on February 7, were 5.43-million tonnes, with a grading of 5.62% zinc, 0.56% lead, 0.94% copper, 58 g/t silver and 1.6 g/t gold.

Resources: Total measured and indicated resources, according to the report were 7.02-million tonnes, with a grading of 6% zinc, 0.59% lead, 1.07% copper, 61.61 g/t silver and 1.74 g/t gold.

Prospects: Tailings storage facility (TSF) seismic upgrade works continued in 2012, with minor outstanding works to be completed in 2013. Nyrstar has submitted a formal TSF closure plan to the regulatory authorities for approval.

Contact Person: Manager corporate communications, Geert Lambrechts.

Contact Details:
Nyrstar
tel + 32 14 449 646
fax + 32 14 810 531
email geert.lambrechts@nyrstar.com
website http://www.nyrstar.com