ECR Minerals Regulatory News (ECR)

16 Apr 2007 07:00

Mercator Gold PLC16 April 2007 London: Monday 16 April 2007 MERCATOR GOLD plc ("Mercator Gold" or the "Company") Highlights • The Company is pleased to announce interim updated resource statements for various projects at Meekatharra. The Company's total resource now stands at 2,323,900oz and is set to increase further on the completion of resource estimates for the Mudlode and Fatts projects. • The indicated resources of the Company now stand at 1,600,700oz. This includes a significant resource of 2.5 million tonnes @ 4g/t for 320,000oz at Prohibition and 405,000 tonnes at 9.3 g/t at Vivian-Consols for 120,000oz. These resources which are in close proximity are the subject of mining studies and the Company expects to announce reserves for the Prohibition-Vivian-Consols project in the near future. Managing Director, Patrick Harford, said: "The Company has added substantiallyboth in quantity and above all in quality to its resource inventory over thelast year. With mining studies at Prohibition and Vivian-Consols nearingcompletion we are very excited about moving rapidly to sustainable andprofitable production." RESOURCES Mercator Gold is undertaking resource evaluations and mining optimisations forseveral of its projects at Meekatharra. These projects include: • Prohibition • Vivian-Consols • Bluebird • Maid Marion • Ingliston The results of the above are announced here. For each resource the Company hasplaced an accompanying document on its web page to support the informationsummarised here. At Prohibition the resource at 2.0 g/t cut off is 2.5 million tonnes @ 4.0 g/tin the Indicated Category and 160,000 tonnes @ 3.9 g/t in the Inferred Categoryfor a total of 341,000 ounces of gold. Vivian-Consols, as reported here, represents a subset of the Company's purchasedresource that has been re-examined; this resource now comprises 405,600 tonnes @9.2 g/t in the Indicated Category and 276,000 tonnes @ 7.4 g/t in the InferredCategory for a total of 186,000 ounces. The other resources that make upVivian-Consols, namely Mudlode and Fatts, are currently being drilled andre-evaluated with a new resource statement expected shortly. Prohibition and Vivian-Consols are within 300 metres of each other. Miningscenarios for Prohibition and Vivian-Consols (PVC) are currently underconsideration. The results of mining and scheduling studies are anticipated inthe next two months. At Bluebird the Company has re-evaluated the existing resource. There-evaluation was conducted because of the Company's concerns with thecorrespondence of the resource model with the drilling assay data. The revisedresource is 5.45 million tonnes @ 2.0 g/t in the Indicated Category and 1.6million tonnes @ 2.6 g/t in the Inferred Category for a total of 488,000 ounces.The remnant resource at Bluebird South is 2.7 million tonnes @ 1.3 g/t for119,000 ounces in all Categories. The changes make the deposit more economic;current desk-top studies near completion and the possibility of trial mining oradditional close-spaced drilling is being assessed. At Maid Marion the resource is 706,000 tonnes @ 1.3 g/t in the IndicatedCategory and 174,000 tonnes @ 1.2 g/t in the Inferred Category giving a total of37,000 ounces. The Company is currently evaluating mining options at MaidMarion. The Maid Marion resource is open to the north and south, and at depth.Exploration drill programmes are being designed aimed at the identification ofimmediate extensions to this resource and a possible repetition to the west. The Ingliston resource is 1.3 million tonnes @ 1.1 g/t in the Indicated Categoryand 100,000 tonnes @ 1.1 g/t in the Inferred Category for a total of 49,000ounces. Mercator Resource inventory Since the annual report for the year ended 30 June 2006, Mercator Gold hasupgraded resources converting Inferred Category resources to Indicated Category.The resource evaluations take the Company closer to mining with advanced mineoptimisation and scheduling studies at Prohibition, Vivian-Consols, Maid Marionand Bluebird. These are expected to add to the Company's Probable Reserves. Since admission to AIM in October 2004, Mercator Gold has identified andannounced gold resources at Meekatharra of more than 800,000 ounces. These arein addition to the resources that it purchased from St Barbara Limited inJanuary 2006. The resource inventory of the Company is summarised in the table below: +--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+| |Indicated | | |Inferred | | |Total | | |+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+| | Tonnes|Grade| Ounces| Tonnes|Grade| Ounces| Tonnes|Grade| Ounces|+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+|Yaloginda | | | | | | | | | |+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+|Bluebird | 5,450,000| 2.0| 351,000| 1,660,000| 2.6|137,000| 7,110,000| 2.1| 488,000|+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+|Bluebird South| 1,433,000| 1.1| 52,000| 1,346,000| 1.6| 67,500| 2,779,000| 1.3| 119,500|+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+|Surprise* | 3,603,000| 0.9| 109,000| 1,303,000| 0.6| 25,000| 4,906,000| 0.9| 134,000|+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+|Sub Total |10,486,000| 1.5| 512,000| 4,309,000| 1.7|229,500|14,795,000| 1.6| 741,500|+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+| | | | | | | | | | |+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+|Paddy's Flat | | | | | | | | | |+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+|Prohibition | 2,510,000| 4.0| 320,000| 160,000| 3.9| 21,000| 2,670,000| 4.0| 341,000|+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+|Vivian-Consols| 405,600| 9.3| 120,800| 276,100| 7.4| 65,700| 681,700| 8.5| 186,400|+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+|Mickey Doolan |12,375,000| 1.0| 396,000| 7,119,000| 0.9|213,000|19,494,000| 1.0| 609,000|+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+|Ingliston | 1,329,000| 1.1| 45,500| 100,000| 1.1| 3,500| 1,429,000| 1.1| 49,000|+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+|Golden Bar | 379,000| 1.4| 17,000| 50,000| 1.1| 2,000| 429,000| 1.4| 19,000|+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+|Maid Marion | 706,000| 1.3| 30,400| 174,000| 1.2| 6,600| 880,000| 1.3| 37,000|+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+|Sub Total |17,704,600| 1.6| 929,700| 7,879,100| 1.2|311,800|25,583,700| 1.5|1,241,400|+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+| | | | | | | | | | |+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+|Reedy | | | | | | | | | |+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+|South Emu | 618,000| 3.4| 68,000| 100,000| 3.0| 10,000| 718,000| 3.4| 78,000|+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+|Rand | 891,000| 1.9| 55,000| 1,458,000| 2.7|125,000| 2,349,000| 2.4| 180,000|+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+|Jack Ryan | 534,000| 2.1| 36,000| 846,000| 1.7| 47,000| 1,380,000| 1.9| 83,000|+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+|Sub Total | 2,043,000| 2.4| 159,000| 2,404,000| 2.4|182,000| 4,447,000| 2.4| 341,000|+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+| | | | | | | | | | |+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+|TOTAL |30,233,600| 1.6|1,600,700|14,592,100| 1.5|723,300|44,825,700| 1.6|2,323,900|+--------------+----------+-----+---------+----------+-----+-------+----------+-----+---------+ Grade is in g/t. Ounces are Troy ounces. Small numeric differences may occur dueto number rounding. * The Surprise resource is inclusive of the Company's Probable Reserves atSurprise of 992,000 tonnes @ 2.36 g/t for 75,000 ounces. This represents aconversion of resource ounces to reserves of 68%. Consent for release Julian Vearncombe BSc (Hons), PhD, FGS, RPGeo, FAIG is a director of the Companyand consents to the inclusion of the exploration information in the form andcontext in which it appears here. Julian Vearncombe is a Competent Person forthe reporting of these results as defined by the JORC Code 2004 Edition. For further information please contact: Mercator Gold plc Terry Strapp, Chairman Tel: +61 (0) 412 228 422Patrick Harford, Managing Director Tel: +44 (0) 20 7929 1010 Email: info@mercatorgold.comWebsite: www.mercatorgold.com Bankside Consultants Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 20 7367 8888 Simon RothschildKeith IronsOliver Winters AIM: MCR This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange