January 23, 2001
Toronto, Ontario – KINROSS GOLD CORPORATION (TSE-K; NYSE-KGC)
A two-phase core drilling program at the Birkachan exploration project, located approximately 40
kilometres by winter road from the Kubaka mine in the Magadan Oblast of Far East Russia, has yielded
very encouraging results. The better drill intersections and uncut assays include 10.9 metres grading
41.08 grams of gold per tonne (g/t), 16.5 metres grading 57.29 g/t and 3.9 metres grading 110.11 g/
t. Omolon Gold Mining Company (OGMC), 54.7 % owned by Kinross Gold Corporation, is the operator
of both the Kubaka mine and the Birkachan exploration project.
This project together with three other exploration programs will be profiled in the Kinross’ annual
exploration up-date conference call to be held on January 25, 2001. Please refer to the end of this
press release for additional information about this conference call and webcast.
Birkachan Phase 1 Exploration Results
To follow-up on a Magadan reconnaissance evaluation, auger-supported soil geochemistry and limited
reverse circulation drilling, OGMC carried out a winter core drilling program at Birkachan that started in
March, 2000 to test a mineralized zone. The target lies under about 20 metres of soil overburden, thus
this is a truly “blind” discovery.
The first, “shallow” phase of drilling identified a strongly hydrothermally altered zone in volcanic rocks
that are similar to those hosting the Kubaka deposit. This zone is at least 2.5 kilometres long, 100 to
300 metres wide, and carries disseminated, low grade mineralization that is cut by nearly vertical, high
grade, “feeder veins”. The results of this phase of the program are illustrated in Table 1, with better
intervals shown in bold print. This 78 hole, 18,000 metre phase tested the epithermal mineralization to
depths averaging about 150 metres below surface. Of these holes, 38 holes carried a mineralized
intersection of greater than 5.0 grams of gold per tonne over a minimum 1.5 metre true thickness
within 150 metres from surface.
There are six quartz-adularia feeder veins carrying the better grade mineralization. They appear to be
arranged in an en echelon pattern striking in a northeasterly direction with a near vertical dip. Some
highlights from this first phase of drilling include the following core-length intersections and uncut
assays results: 2.4 metres grading 32.49 grams of gold per tonne, 4.5 metres grading 22.04 g/t, 12.8
metres grading 12.53 g/t and 3.0 metres grading 21.74 g/t.
Table 1. Summary of Birkachan Phase I Drilling Results
NSV = No significant value (i.e. less than 1.0 metre of 5.0 g/t)
Section Hole From
(m)
2
4
203
401
0
0
To Interval Grade
(m)
175
161
Including
(m) g/t au Best Assay Int
g/t au (m)
175
161
NSV
NSV