Minto (Canada)

Project Overview

Capstone Mining Corp. (“Capstone”) owns the Minto copper-gold-silver mine (“Minto”) located in Yukon, Canada. Minto was built on budget and ahead of schedule in 2007, and is one of the highest-grade open pit copper gold-silver mines in the world.

Since commencing production in 2007, the mine has undergone several successful expansions, more than doubling mill throughput levels from 1,563 tonnes per day to its current design throughput of 3,750 tonnes per day.

Aggressive exploration programs conducted on the Minto property have met with considerable success and will continue to be a priority. In total, there have been eight new high-grade copper-gold discoveries since 2005, with significant increases in gold and silver reserves and resources.

The mill employs conventional crushing, grinding, and flotation to produce copper concentrates with significant gold and silver credits. Concentrates are exported via the Port of Skagway, Alaska, to smelters in Asia for treatment and sale.

Silver Purchase Agreements

Silver Wheaton acquired Silverstone Resources Corp. in May 2009, giving Silver Wheaton the right to purchase all of the silver and gold production from the Minto mine for the lesser of US$3.90 per ounce of silver and US$300 per ounce of gold (subject to an annual 1% inflationary adjustment after 3 years) or the prevailing market price per ounce of silver or gold delivered. If production from the Minto mine exceeds 50,000 ounces of gold per year in the first two years of the agreement, or 30,000 ounces of gold per year thereafter, Silver Wheaton is entitled to purchase 50% of the amount in excess of those thresholds.

Reserves and Resources

Proven & Probable Reserves Attributable to Silver Wheaton ^{(1,2,3,8,15,16)}
As of December 31, 2009 unless otherwise noted ⁽⁶⁾	Proven			Probable			Proven & Probable
	Tonnage	Grade	Contained	Tonnage	Grade	Contained	Tonnage	Grade	Contained	Process Recovery⁽⁷⁾
	Mt	g/t	M oz	Mt	g/t	M oz	Mt	g/t	M oz	%
SILVER
Minto	9.8	6.1	1.9	1.1	4.3	0.2	10.9	5.9	2.1	81
GOLD
Minto ⁽¹⁴⁾	9.8	0.67	0.21	1.1	0.38	0.01	10.9	0.64	0.22	74

Measured & Indicated Resources Attributable to Silver Wheaton ^{(1,2,3,4,5,9,15,16)}
As of December 31, 2009 unless otherwise noted ⁽⁶⁾	Measured			Indicated				Measured & indicated
	Tonnage	Grade	Contained	Tonnage	Grade	Contained		Tonnage		Grade	Contained
	Mt	g/t	M oz	Mt	g/t	M oz		Mt		g/t	M oz
SILVER
Minto	5.7	4.4	0.8	13.3	3.4	1.4	19.0		3.7		2.2
GOLD
Minto	5.7	0.45	0.08	13.3	0.30	0.13	19.0		0.34		0.21

Inferred Resources Attributable to Silver Wheaton ^{(1,2,3,4,5,9,15,16)}
As of December 31, 2009 unless otherwise noted ⁽⁶⁾	INFERRED
	Tonnage	Grade	Contained
	Mt	g/t	M oz
SILVER
Minto	5.8	2.9	0.6
GOLD
Minto	5.8	0.25	0.05

(See Reserves and Resources page for footnotes and for the complete Silver Wheaton Reserves and Resources table.)

More Information

For more information about the Minto mine, please visit Captsone Mining Corp.’s website at www.capstonemining.com.

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