Ascot Mining

Chassoul Gold Mine: Ascot's wholly owned Veritas Gold CR is aquiring a 100% interest in Mina Chassoul, approximately 60km south of Veritas Mining's operations. This mine received final permits on December 14, 2007. Costs for start-up are budgeted at $1,000,000. Construction of infrastructure, the mill and plant facilities and rehabilitation of the mine is well underway. It is believed that the Chassoul Mine concession holds considerable potential as there is one explored vein and eight yet unexplored veins.

The property, Mina de Oro, is located near the city of San Ramon, some 76 km from San Jose along the Pan American Highway, and then approximately 22 km via a secondary road, the first 10 km of which are paved and in good condition. The access road to the mine is gravel and requires some upgrading. Other major cities in the immediate vicinity are Miramar and Puntarenas.

The company has agreed to pay US$ 5.8m over thirty-nine months plus a 2% royalty. A 5 - 6 hole exploration drilling program will be undertaken to identify further resourses. Initial mining and processing began in 1991 and lasted till 1995. According to available information, 11,916 metric tons of ore were mined to yield 42.6 kg of gold, using mercury. The recovery rate was 30% to 40%. In 2001 a pilot plant was built to recover gold from tailings and unprocessed ore stockpiled on surface. During this time a systematic sampling program was initiated and resulted in a thorough geological and economic assessment of the mine.

The report titled "Geology, Reserves and economic Feasibility" by Miguel Alan, Geologist is a very good overview of the potential of the mine - Mina Chassoul, a copy of which is available from the Company.

Although there are nine (9) identified veins, the initial mining and ore production is projected to come from the Veta Cajeta which has been mined in the upper levels. A new adit (146m) has been driven some 40 meters below the current main entrance to develop sufficient headings to support the start up of the mill. The adit has reached the location where a planned raise will connect this new tunnel with the upper workings. Once completed ore from above will be moved to the lower levels and then to the plant for crushing and processing.

The mill design is based work done by Lakefield Research, at a diluted head grade of 0.318 oz and test results indicate a recovery of 92%. The tailings pond was built to accommodate a design mill capacity of 400 tons per day (tpd). Initial mill throughput is estimated at 50 to 75 tpd rising to 150 tpd as the Cajeta vein is developed for production. All main milling components needed to increase mill capacity are in Costa Rica and will be installed as needed to reach an ultimate 400 tpd capacity. All electric power required for the operation is generated on site using diesel generators. Due to the very high cost of diesel fuel, management decided to keep mill capacity in line with mine development and to increase mill capacity gradually.