WELLOG                                 MINING

REVISED 07-01-2008

© 2005-2008 WELLOG

All Rights Reserved

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY:

WELLOG believes that mining is a vital part of our world economy. Mining provides the modern conveniences that make our way of living and standard of living possible.

WELLOG also believes it is possible to satisfy our continued need for commodities including oil and water resources while keeping our social values and preserving the environment, WELLOG maintains and practices an environmental policy.

OPERATIONS:

WELLOG operates mining properties and is continually exploring new mining properties. Two mining properties are currently owned and operated by WELLOG in Arizona. WELLOG is expanding its land position in Alaska.

PROPERTIES:

MONITOR MINE:

The Monitor Mine is a Poly-metallic Copper-Silver-Gold mining property located in the Dripping Springs Mountains in Pinal County, Arizona. WELLOG holdings are currently under lease to High Desert Gold Corp. Visit http://www.highdesertgoldcorp.com to learn more about the Monitor Mine.

COPPER-MOLY-SILVER PORPHYRY:

WELLOG has exploratory reconnaissance that defines an area having high mineral resource potential in Cochise County, Arizona.

WELLOG is seeking a joint venture partner to participate in further definition of this copper-molybdenum porphyry resource.

ALASKA:

WELLOG is expanding its mining properties in Alaska. Our recent work has been directed toward the Esperanto Placer Mine. The Esperanto Gold Placer

is a past producer of over 4000 ounces of placer gold. WELLOG has 440 acres of Alaska State mining claims on Esperanto Creek.

WELLOG is developing logistics resources for gold placer mining in Alaska. If you or your company is interested in logistic support contact logistics@wellog.com .

EXPLORATION:

WELLOG has extensive experience in mineral exploration, discovery, claim staking, land ownership, property evaluation and mine development including mine planning, permitting, and production. Exploration and discovery of new mineralization is our primary goal. The application of reliable, cost-effective geophysical instrumentation is a key element in successful exploration and discovery.

DISCOVERY:

Discovery is the term applied to finding economic minerals in place that would warrant a prudent man to expend time and money with the expectation of profit. Discovery is the culmination of the successful application of geology and geophysics.

WELLOG believes there is a window of opportunity! The mining industry has provided an opportunity for Junior mining companies. The opportunity exists for discovery of shallow high grade mineral deposits that fall outside the scale of mining properties sought by large mining companies.

Large scale…

Traditional discovery of large scale mining properties has been done by mining companies financially positioned to expend large amounts

of capital. Mining properties must meet certain large scale criterion to qualify as being worthy of capital expenditure.

The recent trend in junior mining companies:

The trend is to organize a group of professional geologists, accounting professionals, attorneys into a corporation, solicit investors, offer stock through an IPO and explore for valuable mineral commodities. Qualified mineral targets are usually specified in terms of tens of millions of tons. 

Small scale…

Exploration on the level of the individual prospector is done on a small scale. Prospectors are motivated to go out into the field and prospect for a valuable mineral deposit. Most individual prospectors are not sufficiently trained in the identification of mineral environments, mineral type identification, sampling methods, chemical assay processes, and many other areas of knowledge required to reasonably assure success in prospecting.

A Window of opportunity:

There is a window of opportunity in the mining industry for individuals or companies to explore the shallow subsurface for mineral commodities. Small exploration companies comprised of skilled, technically trained individuals having combined expertise, using appropriate exploration tools fit into a unique group. Low cost exploration efforts combined with diligent research can have a measured increase in success.

After discovery of a potential exploration prospect, the property must be secured under valid mining claims. Prior to mining claim location, research must be completed to establish surface and mineral estate ownership and whether in fact the property is open to mineral entry.

CLAIM LOCATION:

Modern precision GPS GIS mapping methods allow accurate definition of mining claims on a valid mineral discovery. WELLOG uses survey methods that provide exact, complete, efficient coverage of mining properties.

VALUATION:

WELLOG can assist in valuation of mining properties. Economic feasibility is controlled by many factors. Definition of mineralization in three dimensions, sampling, characterization of quality and quantity of ore, beneficiation and market factors are all part of the process of evaluation.

Consideration of the investment required and the return on that investment must include many costs and risk factors.

Compliance with current national Securities and Exchange Commission requirements help pave the way to “going public”. Having a qualified responsible person, performing the mineral sampling and assay according to acceptable and recognized methods helps keep the evaluation of extent of mineralization and quality/quantity of mineralization defined in honest terms.

EXTRACTION:

In order for metals to get into the marketplace, they must be extracted from raw ore.  “Ore” by definition, implies that the economics of a given mineral deposit show potential for profitability. Profitability is controlled in many cases, by the cost of extraction. Depending on the type of mineralization, oxide, sulfide, placer, etc.; extraction is performed thru a pyrometalurgic or hydrometalurgic or gravity process. Initial processing includes the process of crushing and concentration. Often, floatation is used to concentrate the metal content. Electrochemical processes are utilized to extract the metal from a solution which ultimately results in a refined metal. WELLOG is doing research on Hydrogen as a byproduct of electro-winning.

METALLURGY:

Hydrometallurgical extraction:

A typical hydrometallurgical process includes certain steps to obtain metals from ore. The first step is removing the ore from the mine. This involves the use of excavation equipment to load the rock into containers for transport to the second step in the process, crushing.

Crushing:

Crushing is performed using a machine called a jaw crusher or cone type crusher. The ore is fed into the jaw crusher depending on the size of the jaws in the jaw crusher and the speed at which the jaws are moving. The jaw crusher is a motor driven rotating machine having two jaws – one of which operates on an eccentric bearing. The eccentric bearing moves a moving jaw in a reciprocating motion. As the moving jaw moves toward and away from the fixed jaw, rock material is crushed into smaller pieces until the pieces are small enough to flow down thru the jaw assembly.

Milling:

Crushed ore is fed into a machine called a mill that reduces the size of the ore particles down to a specified dimension. One type of mill is a ball mill. A ball mill is a large metal cylinder that rolls on rollers. It contains iron balls with crushed ore. The rotating mill raises and drops the iron balls on the ore and pulverizes the crushed ore until the particles are small enough to go through a screen. The screen has a mesh that is specified as 100 mesh, 200 mesh etc. 100 mesh screen allows particles equal to or less than 1/100 of an inch to pass through to the next step which is called concentration.

Concentration:

Ore that has been milled into small particles can be concentrated by separating the mineralized particles from the non-mineral particles. One process is called floatation. A floatation agent containing xanthate or similar agent is combined with the finely milled ore. When air is forced from below into the solution, the mineralized particles float (due to surface tension) to the surface. Floating particles are skimmed from the surface using a skimmer and transported into a concentrate container. Each mineral has different floatation properties which allow for selective floatation. Flocculants and depressants are used in selective floatation. Therefore, zinc can be separately floated, then lead, then silver, copper etc.

Gravity concentration and/or amalgamation for recovery of gold are examples of another process of concentration.

Leaching:

Often it is necessary to use a process called leaching to remove the bound metal from waste rock. A complete knowledge and understanding of the chemistry of the metals and rock materials is required to establish a process that will dissolve the metals into a solution. Solvent extraction is commonly used to concentrate the metallic elements in a solution in order to increase the efficiency of the electrowinning process. In order to chemically leach metals from waste rock, solutions containing acids, cyanide, or bio-leachants are used. Leaching processes are normally closed loop. Closed loop leaching processes have no outlet that will allow hazardous chemicals to escape into the environment. Ore is exposed to barren liquid during the leach process and the solution increases in saturation with metal. A solution having high metal content is referred to as pregnant solution. 

Roasting:

Sulfide mineral concentrates are roasted to remove sulfur from the ore. This process creates byproduct sulfur in the form of sulfur dioxide, S0₂. When water (H₂0) is mixed with S0₂, the result is sulfuric acid, H₂S0₄. The byproduct sulfuric acid is collected for use in electrowinning of the roasted ore or sold as a beneficial byproduct. Notice that byproduct H₂SO₄ may be continuously recycled for use in the electrowinning process.

Electrowinning:

The final process of solvent extraction electrowinning involves placing the milled, roasted ore in an electrolyte solution containing weak sulfuric acid in water. The minerals are dissolved into the solution.   A solvent is mixed with the solution and used to transport the minerals to an area having grater concentration. When voltage is applied to electrodes in the solution, metal is plated onto the negative (cathode). Oxygen and hydrogen are byproducts from electrowinning that have beneficial use in medicine and for hydrogen powered vehicles. 

An excellent link to visit on this and other related subjects is the Ernest B. Yeager Center for Electrochemical Sciences.

http://electrochem.cwru.edu

A very interesting link for information on extraction: http://yces.case.edu/ed/encycl/art-m02-metals.htm

Another link on electroplating: http://yces.case.edu/ed/encycl/art-e01-electroplat.htm

For the very curious: http://yces.case.edu/ed/encycl/art-m01-magnetic.htm

MARKETING:

Marketing involves the issues surrounding buying and selling. The commodities markets are continually on the move. Metals prices are affected by global conditions of supply and demand. Metals are in demand and buyers are ready to purchase primary metals entering the market.

Metal Prices:

For current metal prices check out this link: http://www.kitco.com

Who are the buyers:

In order to sell metals there must be buyers!

The metals market includes worldwide buyers of metals commodities: http://www.metalsplace.com

Learn about weight conversions used in mining.

Refined metals and byproducts can also be formed into an intermediate or finished product for direct marketing to wholesale outlets.

EXPLORATION TOOLS:

WELLOG has the tools to perform surface and subsurface geophysical surveys. Geophysical tools; SP, IP, Mise A la Masse,  Electrical Resistivity, Electromagnetics, TEM, HLEM and AFMAG are a few of the initial tools applied in early exploration. Continued exploration includes follow-up exploration drilling and sampling. Borehole logging is used to provide 3 Dimensional ore body definition after drilling is completed. Seismic methods can be employed in cases where subsurface structural information is needed.