Atalaya Mining Regulatory News (ATYM)

13 Dec 2006 07:01

EMED Mining Public Limited13 December 2006 AIM: EMED 13 December 2006 SLOVAKIA EXPLORATION UPDATE Highlights • Increased potential for significant gold discovery at the Biely Vrch Prospect in the Detva Licence: • Two follow-up drill holes to the recent discovery drill hole DVE1 (108m at 1.3 g/t gold) have been completed, intersecting quartz veining and sulphides over their entire lengths of 220m and 250m respectively, indicating extensive gold mineralisation. Assays are pending. • Geophysical Induced Polarisation ("IP") survey completed. Preliminary results indicate large chargeability anomaly at depth, showing a deeper additional target. • Progress also continues on several fronts in the Stiavnica-Hodrusa Licence: • Strategic alliance formed with the Rozalia Gold Mine, which operates Slovakia's only gold mine in a mining lease within EMED Mining's exploration licence. • Drilling at the Banska Bela Prospect encountered gold mineralisation warranting follow-up drilling to test near-surface potential west and north of recent drilling. • The Klokoc-Vyhne Prospect has been relegated in priority from current programmes. EMED Mining Public Limited ("EMED Mining") announces progress on its explorationand community relations programmes at its Detva and Stiavnica-Hodrusa licencesin central Slovakia. Detva Licence Area Drilling is currently in progress to follow-up the initial two drill holes atthe Biely Vrch Prospect which both intersected gold throughout their entirelength (DVE1 intersected 108m at 1.3g/t gold) as announced on 23 October 2006. The core from the third and fourth drill holes (DVE3 and DVE4) have beengeologically logged and prepared for assay. Altered andesite, with quartz veinsand disseminated pyrite mineralisation similar to that encountered in drill holeDVE1 is present and indications are that similar gold mineralisation may bepresent over the entire 220m and 250m lengths respectively of these drill holes.Assays are pending. Drillhole DVE3 is located 50m to the south of DVE1. DVE4 is125m east of DVE1 and is angled as a "scissor" drill hole, at 60 degrees to thewest (from horizontal). This is the opposite direction of DVE1, 2 and 3, todetermine the geometry of mineralisation. Drilling will now temporarily demobilise due to seasonal weather. It willrestart in the New Year to test the mineralised zone along strike and at depth. An IP survey has just been completed over the Biely Vrch prospect. Preliminaryresults show the presence of a large chargeability anomaly immediately to thewest of the current drilling and at a depth of approximately 50m to 100m. Theanomaly may relate to a porphyry gold-copper system at depth which will also bethe target of planned drilling. The Detva licence area is located in central Slovakia, about 25 km to the eastof the Stiavnica-Hodrusa district. The geology consists of a caldera-grabencomplex in the centre of a large stratovolcano. Widespread propylitic andlocalised advanced argillic alteration in the licence area indicate substantialhydrothermal activity. This geological setting is considered analogous to of theStiavnica-Hodrusa mineral field and is considered to be a classic geologicalsetting for the formation of large porphyry and epithermal gold orebodies. Stiavnica-Hodrusa Licence Area EMED Mining's licence covers an area of 106 km2 in the central zone of a large,andesitic stratovolcano of Neogene age, within a caldera about 20 km indiameter. The Company's focus is on targets prospective for epithermal andporphyry-style gold, silver and copper mineralisation in this major preciousmetals district. This area historically yielded over 120 million ounces ofsilver, 2.5 million ounces of gold along with significant copper and other andbase metals. It has the potential to again become a major metal-producing regionbecause of the apparent prospectivity combined with the lack of modernexploration and development effort. Strategic alliance with the Rozalia Gold Mine: EMED Mining places great emphasis on its relationships with the local communityand this has recently been reinforced in Slovakia through a strategic alliancewith the Rozalia Gold Mine which operates within the Stiavnica-Hodrusa Licencearea. The Rozalia Gold Mine is a small, high-grade underground gold mine locatedon a mining lease within EMED Mining's large exploration licence atStiavnica-Hodrusa. EMED has formed an alliance with the mine's owners Slovenska Banska s.r.o.whereby EMED provides technical input and Rozalia will be given the opportunityto mine any narrow-vein discoveries by EMED Mining; on the other hand Rozaliasupports EMED Mining with data, community liaison, underground infrastructureand ore-processing (plant processes up to 200,000 tonnes per annum). Banska Bela Prospect: Drilling at the Banska Bela Prospect tested the potentialfor a significant near-surface gold and silver mineralisation. Six inclineddiamond drill holes were completed for a total of 447m, located on threesections 60m to 80m apart. Known mineralisation at Banska Bela is comprised of three main veins which areup to 3km in strike length. Hundreds of shallow excavations ("pinge") outlinethe three vein systems at surface. The two western veins have been extensivelymined from underground over the last 200 years. EMED Mining's recent drillingtargeted the eastern most vein structure. Drilling intersected from 20m up to 40m wide zones of quartz stockwork veinlets,limonite (iron oxide) filled fractures, sulphides and silver bearing minerals inall six drill holes. The mineralisation style is consistent with previousdrilling by a previous explorer to the south-west of EMED Mining's drillprogramme. The best drill intercepts from this initial phase of EMED drilling include: Drillhole From To Intercept Gold Silver (m) (m) (m) (g/t) (g/t)BBVE 1 8 33 25 0.9 39.8BBVE2 1 2 1 2.1 19.0 30 31 1 1.4 168.0 46 50 4 1.4 94.5BBVE3 0 1 1 1.0 41.0 12 13 1 1.7 21.0 18 19 1 1.1 28.0 34 35 1 6.1 48.0BBVE4 11 12 1 1.6 6.0 26 30 4 1.0 22.5BBVE5 4 10 6 0.6 28.5 17 28 11 1.0 36.0BBVE6 11 14 3 1.3 12.3 It is interpreted that there has been significant supergene enrichment anddispersion of the gold mineralisation around narrow 1m to 4m wide primarystructures to a depth of approximately 20m - thus downgrading the potential fora near-surface, bulk-tonnage gold and silver resource on this particular easternvein structure. Exploration potential remains at depth for high-grade shoots on all three BanskaBela veins and near-surface potential remains along strike, north of the centraland western veins. Klokoc-Vyhne Prospect: EMED has downgraded this prospect. Work by EMED soughtto validate past drilling which included a reported 35m at 6.3g/t gold from 191mdepth. The poor assay results of EMED's single drill-hole and relogging of thearchived core from more than 50 of these diamond drillholes does not support anymore work on this prospect. -Ends- Enquiries EMED Mining Nabarro Wells Parkgreen CommunicationsHarry Anagnostaras-Adams Richard Swindells Ana Ribeiro+357 9945 7843 or +44 (0) 20 7710 7400 +44 (0) 20 7493 3713+61 412 369 710www.emed-resources.comwww.emed.tv References in this announcement to exploration results and potential have beenapproved for release by Mr Ron Cunneen, B.Sc. (Honours). Mr Cunneen is Head ofExploration for EMED Mining and has more than 20 years' relevant experience inthe field of activity concerned. He is a member of The Australian Institute ofGeoscientists ("AIG") and has consented to the inclusion of the material in theform and context in which it appears. Notes to Editors: About EMED Mining Public Limited EMED listed on AIM in May 2005 following an initial public offering of itsshares. The company is headquartered in Cyprus and has a strong commitment toresponsible development in the region. The Group's region of interest is the Mesozoic to Tertiary age tectonic beltthat winds over 3,000km from Eastern Europe to Iran. The strategy is to evaluateexploration and development opportunities in several jurisdictions throughoutthis quality mineral belt and to promote sustainable development practicesthrough implementation of EU and other leading-edge international standards.EMED recently co-hosted with the Green Party of Cyprus an internationalconference on Responsible Mining and Environmental Management. EMED has, fromthe outset, strictly implemented its Environmental & Community Policy whichincludes: • Integrating environmental management into our business, planning and reporting processes. • Promoting a strong environmental ethic throughout the company and the community. • Complying with, as a minimum, all applicable local and E.U. laws and regulations. • Communicating with community stakeholders in a responsible and transparent manner. EMED has now established a strong position in the following zones within itsarea of interest: • Cyprus/Middle East exploration is centred on the Troodos ophiolite complex. The targeted mineralisation style is volcanic-hosted massive sulphide copper deposits under shallow cover, similar to the larger Cyprus copper mines - three of which exceeded 10 million tonnes of ore, at grades between 1% and 4.5%. EMED is undertaking a preliminary feasibility study on mining copper-zinc resources in the Klirou District and 7 target areas are being explored for additional mineable deposits. • Slovakia/Eastern Europe exploration areas are centred on a cluster of volcanic centres in Slovakia and Romania. Low-detection geochemical methods are being applied to these areas for the first time together with open pit bulk mining concepts. The targeted mineralisation styles are high-grade epithermal gold, or bulk-mineable epithermal gold and porphyry copper-gold. The company announced on 23 October 2006 a gold discovery in Slovakia. • Georgia/Caucasus exploration areas form a cluster of gold prospects centred in Georgia. EMED Mining's main prospects are within the Upper Racha Licence with reserves and resources (Russian classification) of 2.4 million ounces of gold. Assays are pending on approximately 900 samples from the Company's first field programme and a progress report will issue as results are assembled and interpreted. • Turkey/Bulgaria exploration areas being transferred into 71% owned KEFI Minerals Plc which is to be listed within 12 months. KEFI holds, via its Turkish and Bulgarian subsidiaries, two clusters of tenements in Turkey and the Lehovo tenement in Bulgaria, along with an extensive proprietary database. The Admission of KEFI is planned for 18 December 2006. For further information on the Company's activities, visit www.emed-mining.comor www.emed.tv This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange