ECR Minerals Regulatory News (ECR)

9 May 2005 07:00

Mercator Gold PLC09 May 2005 MERCATOR GOLD PLC ("Mercator" or "the Company") ANNEAN JOINT VENTURE COMMENCES LARGE DRILLING PROGRAMME LONDON - 9th May 2005, Mercator Gold plc, (AIM:MCR) as operator of the AnneanJoint Venture, with St Barbara Mines Ltd (SBM) announces the commencement of alarge drilling programme at its gold exploration projects near Meekatharra,Western Australia. The programme will focus on resource extension drilling at the Yaloginda minetenements, including Bluebird, Jess and Surprise, and exploration drilling atTuckanarra and Meekatharra North. HIGHLIGHTS • Drilling has commenced on a 20,000 metre programme involving both diamond and reverse circulation rigs; • SpaDiS(TM) analysis of results from the 2004 programmeme has highlighted high grade zones for further exploration drilling at both Surprise and Bluebird; • High-grade intercepts at Bluebird and Surprise previously excluded from resource calculations have been verified, and as a result the Company has commissioned its first preliminary resource estimates at both Bluebird and Surprise; • Further drilling at Tuckanarra and Maid Marion (Meekatharra North) will target significant gold anomalies. Yaloginda Mine Tenements The Company will focus its drilling activity on its Yaloginda mine, proving upadditional gold resources beneath and adjacent to the Bluebird and Surpriseabandoned pits, as well as drill testing the Jess target and commence drillingat Great Northern Highway and South Junction. These drill targets are within 4kmof the Bluebird mill and gold processing facility of joint venture partner StBarbara Mines Ltd. In addition to RC drilling, diamond core drilling willcommence in the first week of May. At Surprise the Company will drill new targets at depth and along strike toidentify additional high-grade ore shoots to expand the size of the Surprisesystem. The Surprise targets are based on the results of ongoing SpaDiS(TM)analyses that show high-grade zones in structures oblique to the strike trend ofthe host porphyry, controlled by packages of flat quartz veins within a 45degrees south plunging envelope. Mercator will conduct preliminary resource assessments on mineralisation atYaloginda. Data validation at Bluebird is complete and some twinned confirmationdrill holes will be required at Bluebird to verify legacy RC drilling. TheCompany is scheduling initial confirmation drilling for mid-May and early-June,synchronous with drilling deep targets beneath the known mineralisation atBluebird. The deep Bluebird targets arise from ongoing SpaDiS(TM) analyses thatfor the first time recognise distinct and repeated flat high-grade ore shootswithin the steep easterly plunging ore envelope. Tuckanarra and Meekatharra North In April, the Company commenced a three-hole RC drilling programme at Tuckanarrato test geophysical anomalies in the search for high-grade gold-bearingpyrrhotite ores. Three-dimensional pole-dipole surveys conducted by the Companyin October 2004 revealed distinct chargeable but resistive anomalies indicativeof sulphide presence. On completion of the Tuckanarra programme Mercator will drill two RC holes atMingah. Mingah, on the Kurara East tenement group on the south side of the NoriePluton, is a broad zone of anomalous gold located by air-core drilling but notfurther examined. The holes are targeting depth in the range 150 to 200mdesigned to go through the overlying clays of Lake Annean in to the bedrock todetermine the geology and mineralisation potential. At Meekatharra North, the Company drilled 93 air-core holes as a regionaltargeting tool in 2004. Thirteen holes returned gold grades over 0.5 g/t. Onediamond core hole drilled at Maid Marion confirmed continuity of mineralisationat depth from previous RC drilling with six significant intercepts in bandediron formation and mafic schist (announced previously). This hole alsointersected gold-related semi-massive sulphide mineralisation identified fromthree-dimensional pole-dipole survey carried out in October 2004. The Companywill continue its exploration at Meekatharra North with a programme of RCdrilling expected for June or July. - Ends - For further information, please contact: Mercator Gold plcPatrick Harford, Managing Director Tel: +44 (0) 7786 486645Terry Strapp, Chairman Tel : +61 (0) 8 9322 7422 Beaumont Cornish LimitedRod Venables / Roland Cornish Tel: +44 (0) 20 7628 3396 Ocean Equities LtdGuy Wilkes Tel: +44 (0) 20 7786 4370 Phillip Securities UK LimitedNick Bealer Tel: +44 (0) 20 7553 8281 Parkgreen CommunicationsJustine Howarth / Ana Ribeiro Tel: +44 (0) 20 7493 3713 Mercator operates a continuous disclosure policy with respect to explorationresults. Company news releases are based on technical information approved bythe Company's Exploration Director, Julian Vearncombe BSc (Hons), PhD, FGS,RPGeo, FAIG. Note to editors Mercator Gold plc ("AIM-MCR; MCRW"), which joined AIM on 8 October 2004, has ajoint venture agreement with St Barbara Mines Limited ("the Annean Joint Venture") to explore for economic gold resources in the Annean Joint Venture area inthe Meekatharra region of Western Australia. Under the terms of the Annean Joint Venture, Mercator has the right to earn 70%interest in the Meekatharra properties by spending AUD$8 million (approx GBP3.1million) on exploration. Mercator recently announced that it has spent the firstAUD$1 million and has elected to proceed towards the first step of earning 45%with a minimum expenditure requirement of AUD$2 million before 3rd March 2006. SpaDiS(TM) is a software programme developed by Vearncombe & Associates Pty Ltdthat uses fractal technologies, including autocorrelation, to generatehigh-grade targets from historic exploration data. Mercator Gold has acontractual arrangement for the on-going use of SpaDiS(TM). Mercator management has an exploration target of 2,000,000 ounces of goldcontained within four resources, each of at least 500,000 ounces within theAnnean Joint Venture area. The Company has reported initial high-grade drilling results from the first twotarget areas, Bluebird and Surprise. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange