Project owner Placer Mining Corp has agreed to reduce monthly lease payments for the next 12 months by 70% to US$60,000, with an option to extend the concession upon achieving certain goals on its work programme.

The reduction in payments would be made up for by adding the accumulated reduction to the purchase price of the mine, should Bunker Hill choose to exercise its option to buy.

To pay the immediate ajusted obligations, the company has launched a C$300,000 private placement of four-million units at C$0.075 each, comprising one common share and one warrant. Each warrant would allow the holder to buy one share for two years from issuing at 10c apiece.

The company also said it expected to submit a proposal to the US Environmental Protection Agency by Friday in support of lowering the payment obligations it has toward the EPA-run water treatment facility. Bunker Hill was the site of a major EPA Superfund clean-up campaign following decades of pollution that stemmed from unchecked historic production and the mine's ultimate abandonment.

Bunker Hill also announced the resignation of Howard Crosby from the board, for personal reasons. He has been replaced by John Liu, who has 25-years' experience in private equity investment, consulting and business management.