Empire Metals Regulatory News (EEE)

9 Mar 2011 07:00

Noricum Gold Limited / EPIC: NMG / Sector: Natural Resources

9 March 2011

Noricum Gold Limited (`Noricum Gold' or the `Company')

Defined Exploration Programme at Austrian Rotgulden and Kliening Licences

Noricum Gold Limited, the Austrian focussed gold exploration and development company, is pleased to announce the details of its exploration programme at the Company's 51km2 Rotg¼lden and 49km2 Kliening gold projects in south-central Austria.

Overview

* Commenced defined mineral exploration programme to advance Rotg¼lden and Kliening prospects towards Mineral Resource definition * Experienced field team of Austrian and Australian geologists to commence field work in April 2011 * Re-interpretation and analysis of historical data on-going, remodelling of geophysical surveys by Southern Geoscience Consultants * Down-hole electromagnetic/magnetic work to be conducted at Rotg¼lden to pinpoint massive sulphide (chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite) drill targets, previous drilling intersected grades to 44g/t over 2.7m * Further drilling is expected later in the field season at Rotg¼lden (Q3/4 2011) * Tailings dumps at Kliening mining centre require sampling, this material from historical gravity separation provides attractive early cash flow target * Existing mapping and trenching at Buchbauer-Bischofeck (Kliening) has confirmed parallel groups of vein swarms, veins can be 25m apart, vein groups 100m apart, individual veins to 2.5m and grades to 23.6g/t Au * These vein swarms at Buchbauer-Bischofeck will be drill tested (Q2 2011) * Continued support from local communities - recent meetings with the Mayors of each region indicated public support for development

Noricum Gold CEO Greg Kuenzel said, "Initial work at both the prospective Rotg¼lden and Kliening gold projects is underway, representing the next stage of development of our Austrian assets. Our active development plan is focussed on fast-tracking these projects, which have both good access and historical workings on site, with the aim of defining a Maiden JORC Resource and advancing our assets towards production.

"Importantly, having recently met with local representatives across south-central Austria, we are confident of the local community's ongoing support for our projects and development plans and we are committed to engaging closely with the community over the coming months as we commence drilling at the Kliening prospect in Q2 2011."

Noricum Gold owns five prospective gold prospects totalling 171 km2 in south-central Austria, a historic gold producing district. The region offers a pro-mining environment and further to recent meetings between Noricum and the Mayors of each region in which the projects are located, the Company is confident of continued public support for development of these licences.

The Company has recruited an experienced team comprised of both Austrian and Australian geologists who are on the ground and due to commence field work at the prospects in April 2011.

Initial exploration work will focus on the Rotg¼lden and Kliening licences due to excellent access and infrastructure available at these sites, and the likely potential for significant mineralisation to be located. Re-interpretation and analysis of historical data is on-going and remodelling of this is currently underway. Southern Geoscience Consultants are compiling and remodelling historical down-hole and ground based geophysical work. Work to date indicates that, particularly at Rotg¼lden, the mineralisation contains enough pyrrhotite such that both magnetic and electromagnetic techniques should be successful in defining the mineralisation. The Company anticipates that this work, focussed on refining the geological and geophysical characteristics of the mineralisation at the local mine scale, will enable the techniques to be scaled up for the entire regional land package.

Rotg¼lden

The Rotg¼lden licence area comprises 15 underground mines, including the previously operating gold/copper/silver Rotg¼lden mine. In order to develop the project towards defining a sufficient in-situ Mineral JORC Resource, the Company will conduct additional geophysical and geochemical work, including down-hole electromagnetics, which will be used to identify high order drill targets likely to consist of massive sulphide (chalcopyrite/pyrrhotite) ore. Drilling by previous explorers has intersected this mineralisation (Drill hole C2 - 2.7m @ 44g/t Au from 24.3m). The Company will define further drilling to evaluate the high grade potential of this style of mineralisation at Rotg¼lden below current workings. This programme is likely to contain up to 3,000m of drilling to be completed later in the field season once approval from the regional authorities is granted.

Also at Rotg¼lden, some more detailed mapping will be completed above the tree line where anecdotal evidence from field mapping located visible gold at surface in a quartz lode. This secondary style of mineralisation highlights the potential of the area.

The Board also plans to undertake additional geophysical magnetic survey lines and develop a work programme of surface diamond drilling in the Altenberg valley, to run alongside the underground drill programme.

Kliening

Located circa 100km from Rotg¼lden, the prospective Kliening gold project has clearly defined geological mineralised structures and offers good access and moderate terrain, ideal for exploration. The Company is focussed on two targets at Kliening.

The first target at Kliening is gold contained in tailings dumps that are located around the historical mining centre. These dumps could represent a significant tonnage where historical mining and processing by gravity separation has left gold that can be recovered by traditional CIL technology. The material has already been crushed so a modular CIL plant could easily process considerable volumes without the need for crushing. The Company is of the opinion that around half of the original gold remains in the tailings. These dumps will be systematically sampled and surveyed in early May, and where necessary, auger sampling will be conducted. The samples will be assayed for gold, silver and copper and a composite sample will be created so that the leaching characteristics of the gold can be determined.

The second target at Kliening is lode style gold mineralisation which has been established by previous explorers by trenching, mapping and sampling at Buchbauer-Bischofeck. The historical work has confirmed the existence of several groups of parallel vein swarms. The veins in these swarms are up to 2.5m wide and the tenor of gold mineralisation can be as high as 23.6g/tAu. The veins appear 25m apart within the vein swarms and the vein swarms can be 100m apart. This target was never drill tested.

These veins swarms are to be drill tested with up to 5,000 metres of reverse circulation drilling likely to commence later in May or in June.

The information in this report that relates to Exploration Results, Mineral Resources or Ore Reserves is based on information compiled by Jeremy Whybrow, who is a Member of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

Jeremy Whybrow is a director of the company.

Jeremy Whybrow has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2004 Edition of the `Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves'. Jeremy Whybrow consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.

Glossary

Chalcopyrite A copper iron sulfide mineral with the chemical composition CuFeS2.

CIL Carbon-In-Leach processing

JORC Joint Ore Reserves Committee (of the AusIMM and other institutions)

Lode a thin band or strip of rock containing metallic ore

Pyrrhotite An unusual iron sulphide mineral with a variable iron content

Quartz A very common mineral in sedimentary, magmatic, metamorphic, and hydrothermal environments: SiO2

**ENDS**

For further information please visit www.noricumgold.com or contact:

Greg Kuenzel Noricum Gold Limited Tel: 020 3326 1726 Roland Cornish Beaumont Cornish Limited Tel: 020 7628 3396 James Biddle Beaumont Cornish Limited Tel: 020 7628 3396 Hugo de Salis St Brides Media & Finance Ltd Tel: 020 7236 1177 Elisabeth Cowell St Brides Media & Finance Ltd Tel: 020 7236 1177