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Miramar Commences $18 Million Work Program at Hope Bay in 2004; Focus Expanding Boston & Madrid, Advancing Doris to a Production Decision & New Discoveries



Wednesday February 18, 8:42 PM EST

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb 18, 2004 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Miramar Mining Corporation today announced that it has commenced the 2004 work program at its 100% owned Hope Bay project. The 2004 budget of $18 million will fund approximately 38,000m of core drilling, 5,000 of reverse circulation drilling and the continuing permitting process for the proposed high grade Doris North gold mine. Drilling is underway in the Madrid district and the Boston deep drilling program will commence in March.

"Our ambitious Hope Bay exploration program in 2004 is designed to build off the successes of 2003," said Tony Walsh, Miramar's President and CEO. "Our improved geologic models for the Boston and Madrid gold systems, combined with a 25% increase in our resource base at Hope Bay to approximately 5.4 million oz of gold, clearly justify this year's plans to continue the evaluation of the depth potential at Boston and to further expand the gold resource at Madrid, as well as continuing the search for new gold deposits. This program, combined with a significant exploration program planned for the recently optioned George & Goose Lake gold projects promises an exciting 2004."



By the end of 2004, Miramar also expects to complete it internal assessment for the optimum extraction of the considerable resources on the belt, including the Boston deposit where there is currently a resource of approximately 1.6 million ounces of gold (comprised of an indicated resource of 687,000 ounces grading 15.4 g/t, a significant portion of which is accessed by existing development, plus and additional inferred resource of 901,000 ounces grading 10.9g/t gold) and where drilling in 2003 extended the mineralization to depths of over 1,000 metres below surface. "The development of the high grade Doris North deposit should provide the springboard for our efforts to establish Hope Bay as a long lived, profitable resource base that we believe will provide significant value to our shareholders in the coming years," said Mr. Walsh.

"We continue to believe that Hope Bay's tremendous potential warrants a multi-pronged approach to the belt, encompassing the full range of activities from grass roots exploration to mine development," said Mr. Walsh. "Only through this multi-pronged approach will we be able to discover and develop the full potential of the Hope Bay belt."

Exploration Program

Exploration activities totalling $16 million are planned for 2004, with a similar level of activity and focus to 2003. This program will include approximately 40,000m of core drilling and almost 5,000m of reverse circulation drilling. The main priorities for these activities are Boston at depth, the Madrid area and a continued emphasis on regional exploration.

Boston Deep

As announced during 2003, drilling of a number of deep holes under the previously defined resource more than doubled the depth extent of the mineralized system at Boston - to at least 1,000m below surface over a strike length of at least 750m. One deeper hole provided indications that the system may extend to as much as 1,400m below surface. Another important development in 2003 was the re-interpretation of the geology of the Boston area as a steeply plunging, overturned anticline, with the mineralized zones cross cutting stratigraphy. This re-interpretation opens up new exploration opportunities: firstly for the three known mineralized zones to cross the stratigraphic package and intersect additional favourable volcanic units and, secondly, for other less well mineralized sediment hosted zones to cross into more favourable volcanic stratigraphy and potentially develop into significant gold deposits.

The 2004 drilling is aimed at pattern drilling around the high grade, wide intercept in hole S03-293 (54.7 g/t gold over 9m) and extending the mineralization to the south (where hole S03-294 intercepted 5.2 g/t gold over 19m) and to depth. This drilling, combined with some shallow RC drilling, will also permit further testing of the newly identified, sediment hosted zones and where they cross into the more favourable volcanic stratigraphy. Approximately 16,000m of drilling is planned for Boston, commencing in March 2004 and continuing through most of the year.

"Our objective is to get sufficient intercepts at depth to confirm the potential for the development of a large, deep mineralized system at Boston," said Mr. Walsh. "While we may not be in a position to define resources without additional infill work, we should be in a position to determine whether the results justify an intensive resource definition program either from surface or underground, as well as improving our understanding of the potential new, parallel zones."

Madrid

The Madrid mineralizing system is the largest and most prolific in the Hope Bay belt to date, with numerous deposits and gold occurrences over approximately 6km of strike, and an additional 5km of strike where favourable stratigraphy, alteration and anomalous gold values have been identified but not yet drill tested. A significant development in 2003 was the recognition of important stratigraphic controls on the localization of gold deposits. The identification of favourable "Patch-type" rocks at Naartok, Perrin, Rand, Suluk and South Suluk demonstrates a close association of significant gold resources with these particular rocks. This association allows improved targeting of exploration efforts, and prioritizes untested areas of Patch-type rocks as key exploration opportunities.

In addition, the improved geologic model led to the recognition of the bulk tonnage potential of the Madrid area, with thick sections of lower grade potentially open pittable resources at Naartok, Perrin and Rand, and 10-30m wide zones of potentially bulk mineable underground resources at Suluk.

The 2004 program is designed to build off these developments and to continue the evaluation of this enormous, 11km long mineralized system, where there is considerable potential to continue to add bulk mineable resources. Drilling will target a number of areas, including Suluk at depth (where the two mineralized zones are interpreted to converge with a major controlling structure), extending shallow dipping Perrin mineralization towards the higher grade Naartok deposit, evaluating the potential junction between the Naartok and Perrin Zones, extending the Rand Zone and continuing to test additional priority targets along the trend. Approximately 20,000m of core drilling is planned to commence in February and continue into the fall, with a short interruption for spring break-up.

"Our objective at Madrid in 2004 is to continue to build bulk mineable resources that could support the potential development of a large scale open pit and bulk underground mining operation," said Mr. Walsh. "Our work in 2003 indicates that there is excellent potential to see such a scenario emerge."

Regional Exploration

In addition to the major programs at Boston and Madrid, exploration will continue across the belt with two prime objectives: to evaluate known mineralized trends and to test under explored areas for their potential to host entirely new deposits. This exploration will be conducted with core and RC drilling in the winter, and core drilling and surface mapping in the summer.


Trend exploration is planned to target three areas:

-- Doris Hinge extension, in an attempt to locate a possible
northern extension of the very high grade Doris Hinge a major
post mineral dyke, in an area where one hole intercepted 67
g/t gold over 0.4m in a geologic setting comparable to the
Doris Hinge.

-- NOD93 area, 6km south of Boston, where a 500m long boulder
train of gold bearing Boston-style quartz-pyrite-tourmaline
mineralization has been outlined and where an isolated single
drill hole intercepted 10.8 g/t gold over 1.4m.

-- The west and south extensions of the Madrid trend, where
exploration data suggests the favourable Patch-type
stratigraphy can be extended under Windy Lake and south into
the Nexus area.

New target generation will build off the successes of past years in opening up new areas of prospective geology. Reverse circulation drilling will be used to advance approximately seven areas towards the core drilling stage, while three areas will be core drilled as they are sufficiently advanced to warrant it. Highlights include:


-- Advancing the North and South Nexus and Gas Cache areas to the
core drill stage where large alteration systems have been
identified in favourable volcanics, indicating potential to
host significant new deposits;

-- Preliminary evaluation of the Havana and North Kamik areas
where the Patch Lake Deformation Zone may extend through areas
of favourable volcanics;

-- Step out drilling in the successful Boston NE area, where 2003
RC drilling was successful in defining previously unrecognized
favourable altered volcanics beneath a largely overburden
covered areas;

-- Preliminary testing of the surface projection of the newly
discovered mineralized vein systems hosted by sedimentary
units east of the main Boston mineralized zones.

Under the recently announced option and joint venture agreement with Sherwood Mining Corporation, evaluation of the Chicago and newly discovered Heku high grade gold-silver-copper trends will also be undertaken. The Chicago and Heku showings are hosted within extensive mineralized trends within felsic volcanics and channel sampling has returned up to 169 g/t gold and 3,200 g/t silver over 0.3m.

Hope Bay Project

The Hope Bay project is 100% owned by Miramar, extends over 1,000 sq.km. and encompasses one of the most prospective undeveloped greenstone belts in Canada. The belt contains a number of significant gold deposits which, combined, host a measured and indicated resource of 1.8 million oz of gold averaging 9.9 g/t plus an inferred resource of 3.6 million oz of gold averaging 6.9 g/t. All deposits remain open to expansion.

Quality Assurance

All resource and reserve estimates have been prepared by the Miramar Hope Bay Limited staff in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 and reviewed by John Wakeford, P. Geo. Exploration Manager for Miramar Mining Corporation.

Additional Information

Maps and diagrams detailing some of the matters described herein are attached to this news release. If you are missing these illustrations, please download this news release from Miramar's website at http://www.miramarmining.com/, to which they are attached, or contact us at the numbers listed below. All other information previously released on the Hope Bay Project is also available on these websites.