Triple Pl.ju. Regulatory News (TPJ)

Triple Plate Junction Plc

("TPJ" or the "Company")

Update on Manus Island and Preparation for Drilling

TPJ is pleased to advise that Newcrest PNG Exploration Limited, a subsidiary of Newcrest Mining Limited, ('Newcrest"), the Company's partner in the Manus Island Joint Venture in Papua New Guinea ("PNG") and the world's third largest gold company (ASX:NCM), is preparing to test by diamond drilling the first of a number of priority targets identified by field work and by a comprehensive helicopter-borne magnetic-radiometric geophysical survey completed over the entire tenement area of 676 square kilometres.

Drilling of the first 3,000m at the Kisi epithermal gold prospect and the Arie copper-gold porphyry prospect was planned to commence in Q3 of this year, but Newcrest has advised that it has been delayed by a shortage of suitable drilling rigs and helicopter support until early January 2012. 

At the Kisi epithermal gold prospect, previous work had outlined a 2.5km by 1km gold-in-soil anomaly of +200ppb gold.  Initial scout diamond drilling by TPJ had intersected epithermal quartz veining of up to 5.6m at 4.98g/t gold.  Newcrest field programmes have confirmed the broad gold-in-soil anomalism and have also defined a more coherent +500ppb gold-in-soil anomaly in a 1.4km by 200m wide E-W zone, with corresponding rock float gold values up to 18g/t gold. 

Mineralization is contained in highly siliceous limestone and epithermal-type quartz veins.  Calc-silicate assemblages recognized on the east side of the Kisi prospect may also indicate a possible skarn style of mineralization that extends the target zone a further kilometre eastwards. Interpretation of the heli-mag data clearly identifies strong E-W structures that may control the observed Kisi mineralization.

At the Arie copper-gold porphyry prospect, historical drilling in 1972-74 by Australian Anglo American established a non-JORC compliant resource of 164Mt of 0.32% copper to 200m drilled depth.  Newcrest consider that insufficient gold analyses were undertaken at that time to give a corresponding estimate of gold grade, although stream sediment sampling of creeks draining the Arie prospect have some of the highest levels of gold-in-stream sediments found on Manus Island.

The recent heli-mag work by Newcrest has identified a strong magnetic high more than 500m WNW of the known Arie resource, and may indicate a deep, magnetite-bearing potassic core of the Arie mineralized system.  Systematic surface sampling has defined a circular 500m diameter central zone with +0.1g/t gold and +16ppm molybdenum in soil anomalism lying within a northwest trending 900m by 550m zone of +700ppm copper-in-soil.    The close association of gold and copper within the central core of the porphyry supports the drill testing of a deeper copper-rich target at the north-west limit of previous drilling at Arie.

Bill Howell, TPJ's Exploration Director, commented:  "The heli-mag survey, together with associated surface sampling and mapping, has defined a significant number of priority targets in the Joint Venture area.  We are most encouraged by this and by the results coming out of Kisi and Arie, which will be the first two prospects to be drilled.  Both targets are indicating early potential for size and type of mineralization to achieve the thresh-holds that major companies like Newcrest aim for in new discoveries, namely at least 5Moz of gold or gold equivalent for porphyry type deposits and 3Moz for higher grade gold in epithermal vein or replacement type deposits." 

Triple Plate Junction plc

Fraser McGee                                                                                         +44 (0)7775 693 237

finnCap Ltd

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Ocean Equities Limited

Guy Wilkes                                                                                               +44 (0)20 7786 4370

FTI Consulting

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