KELLOGG, IDAHO. New Jersey Mining Company (Symbol: NJMC - OTC Bulletin Board) recently signed letters of intent with Paymaster Resources Incorporated and Prichard Creek Resource Partners LLC pursuant to which New Jersey Mining Co. will enter into an exploration lease with a mining lease option on the Golden Chest mine located near Murray, Idaho. The Golden Chest was the largest lode producer in the Murray district producing 65,000 ounces of gold from narrow high grade veins. Newmont Exploration Limited spent over $500,000 on an exploration program at the Golden Chest in the late 1980's which consisted of soil and rock sampling, surface and underground mapping and 11,133 feet of drilling. Newmont’s work identified a potential open pit with an inferred geologic resource of 230,000 ounces of gold.

The Golden Chest veins are flatly-dipping, banded quartz veins ranging in thickness from centimeters to 3 meters and are generally conformable with bedding of Prichard formation argillite. Sulfide minerals including pyrite, arsenopyrite and galena occur with free gold in the quartz veins. Veins are stacked, in certain areas, to form bulk mineable bodies. Gold mineralization also occurs as disseminations in quartzite units of the Prichard formation. The agreement with Paymaster calls for a 2.5 year exploration period during which NJMC will issue 10,000 shares per six month period. If the mining lease is executed NJMC would pay 100,000 shares and a sliding scale net smelter return (NSR) royalty which increases with the gold price. The royalty is 3% up to a gold price of $400/oz and then increases to a maximum of 6% at higher gold prices, but the trigger prices for higher royalties will be adjusted for inflation. Also, NJMC would issue 50,000 shares for each 10,000 ounces of gold produced at the Golden Chest.

Fred Brackebusch, President said: “The Golden Chest mine fits well with NJMC’s existing New Jersey and Silver Strand mines because of similar gold-silver mineralization. NJMC’s strategy is to develop reserves and commence production of higher grade underground resources, processing the ore at the New Jersey mill using gravity and flotation methods. An economic study of the larger resource identified by Newmont will be conducted. The addition of the resources at the Golden Chest increases the gold resources controlled by NJMC to over 300,000 ounces.”

In other news, exploration drilling at several prospects around the New Jersey mine has been completed. Five diamond drillholes were completed amongst the Teddy-Wisconsin, Scotch Thistle, Enterprise and High-Grade prospects. Three of these holes intercepted significant gold or base metal mineralization. Visible gold was observed in the quartz vein intercept at the High-Grade prospect. Samples have been sawn from the core and will be submitted for analysis this week. Also, the permitting process with the USFS is underway for an underground mining operation at the Silver Strand. Additional information was supplied to the USFS earlier this month.

The Company’s Annual Meeting will be held at 10:00 AM July 16, 2003 at the Wallace Inn in Wallace, Idaho - Silver Capital of the World. Management will make a presentation on the various mineral properties and plans for future production at the New Jersey mill. New Jersey Mining Company is involved in exploring for and developing gold, silver and base metal ore resources in the Coeur d'Alene Mining District of northern Idaho. The Company has a portfolio of six mineral properties in the Coeur d'Alene Mining District: the New Jersey mine, the Silver Strand mine, the Golden Chest mine, the Lost Eagle project, the CAMP project and the Wisconsin-Teddy project.