Empire Metals Regulatory News (EEE)

27 Jun 2011 07:00

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

27 June 2011

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

Noricum Gold Limited, the Austrian focussed gold exploration and development company, is pleased to announce an update regarding its exploration programme at the Company's Rotg¼lden and Kliening gold projects in south-central Austria.

Overview

* Fieldwork has commenced at both Rotg¼lden and Kliening - focussed on progressing the projects towards defining a maiden JORC Resource * Regional drill company Voest Alpine appointed to complete an initial 1,800 metre drill programme at Rotg¼lden, subject to approval from the Austrian Ministry of Mines, commencing in August and an initial 2,000 metre drilling programme at Kliening commencing today * Multiple targets for further exploratory work defined at Rotg¼lden through geophysical and mapping work conducted to date * Terratec Geoservices has commenced a significant electromagnetic (`EM') programme at Rotg¼lden to identify massive sulphide drill targets which consist of high grade gold, silver and copper

Noricum Gold Managing Director Greg Kuenzel said, "We have made encouraging progress at both Rotg¼lden and Kliening since commencing our exploration programme in March 2011, and have identified multiple highly prospective targets for further exploration.

"We are committed to building upon our already solid understanding of the mineralisation at the sites, which are located in a historically high grade gold production region, and we are confident that the commencement of drilling will take us one step closer to defining a maiden JORC Resource. Additionally, the EM work at Rotgulden will enable us to pinpoint the location of further high grade gold, silver and copper targets which are typical of the region and which will be a high priority for work in the future."

Further information

Fieldwork has commenced at both Rotg¼lden and Kliening. The Company has awarded drilling contracts to Voest Alpine to complete an initial 1,800 metres of surface drilling at Rotg¼lden and an initial 2,000 metre drilling programme at Kliening. The Company has also engaged Terratec Geoservices to undertake a significant electromagnetic programme at Rotg¼lden.

The 1,800 metre drilling programme at Rotg¼lden, which is comprised of 15 underground mines including the previously operating gold/copper/silver Rotg¼lden mine, is subject to the approval of a new work programme due to be submitted to the authorities within the next couple of weeks. Work is scheduled to commence in August and is anticipated to last eight weeks. Drilling by previous explorers resulted in intersections of 2.7 metres at 44.0g/t gold, 0.3 metres at 23.5g/t gold and 5.15 metres at 4.9g/t gold. The Company is also focussed on evaluating the multi-element aspect of Rotg¼lden. As well as impressive gold grades, historical drilling and trenching work indicated high grades of both silver and copper. The best intersections being 314.48g/t silver over 4.60 metres and 3.71% copper over 2.50 metres.

Southern Geoscience Consultants has reinterpreted the historical downhole magnetic logging for Rotg¼lden and the magnetic data has been split into its component parts for modelling. This data is encouraging and shows that the massive sulphide mineralisation typical at Rotg¼lden contains a significant amount of phyrrhotite. This has created several geophysical targets that appear to be on the expected mineralised trend, confirming the Company's interpretation. Southern Geoscience only completed magnetic modelling on three drill holes logged by a previous explorer, but Noricum field staff have now completed this work on the remaining holes that are preserved in the underground workings. The Company expects that further targets will be derived from this work.

Also at Rotg¼lden some mapping has been completed above the previously known extents of the mineralisation. This mapping located several unknown historical adits that were centred on what appears to be a gold lode. This mineralisation is several metres wide and offers another target for exploration.

Further geophysical work in the form of an EM survey is expected to commence this week following the laying of the EM loop. This is anticipated to define the whole massive sulphide body (not just the phyrrhotite). Noricum Gold believes the EM conductors should form a much larger shell around the magnetic anomaly and thus define the majority of the mineralised high grade gold, silver and copper envelope. Following a recent field trip to Rotg¼lden by Bill Peters of Southern Geoscience Consultants and Klaus Brauch, Managing Director of Terratec Geoservices, the Company's technical consultants have designed a preliminary EM survey that will test the existing drill holes and the underground drives with a down hole tool. Surface traverses will be trialled following the initial work. It is expected that the mineralisation will react as a strong conductor and should help define the down dip position of possible economic gold, silver and copper mineralisation.

Drilling at the Kleining licence area has commenced today and will take approximately two months to complete. As previously announced, the historical work has confirmed the existence of several groups of parallel vein swarms. The veins in these swarms are up to 2.5 metres wide and the tenor of gold mineralisation can be as high as 23.6g/t gold. The veins appear 25 metres apart within the vein swarms and the vein swarms can be 100 metres apart.

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

Adit A type of entrance to an underground mine which is horizontal or nearly horizontal

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

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 Company Tel: 020 3326 1726 Roland Cornish Beaumont Cornish Limited Nomad Tel: 020 7628 3396 James Biddle Beaumont Cornish Limited Nomad Tel: 020 7628 3396 Michael Parnes Old Park Lane Capital plc Broker Tel: 020 7493 8188 Luca Tenuta Old Park Lane Capital plc Broker Tel: 020 7493 8188 Hugo de Salis St Brides Media & Finance Ltd PR Tel: 020 7236 1177 Elisabeth Cowell St Brides Media & Finance Ltd PR Tel: 020 7236 1177