Minco PLC Regulatory News (MIO)

22 Mar 2007 07:00

Minco PLC22 March 2007 PALLAS GREEN EXPLORATION UPDATE London, 22 March 2007 - Minco plc (MIO), the London AIM quoted precious and basemetals exploration and development company is pleased to announce the results ofa detailed independent geological review of the Pallas Green exploration jointventure in Ireland. Highlights To assess the exploration potential of its Irish licences, Minco hascommissioned Mr Peter Tyler, an independent consulting geologist with expertisein Irish base metals deposits, to review the status of its Pallas Greenexploration joint venture. Mr Tyler's main conclusions are: • Widely spaced drilling within the 30% of the Pallas Green alterationtrend explored to date has located five massive sulphide lenses with grades ofapproximately 10% zinc and 1.4% lead. • The potential for massive sulphide discovery along the Pallas Greentrend is considered at least as high as that of the Lisheen trend, which hoststwo known major clusters of massive sulphide lenses which comprise the Lisheenand Galmoy mines. • Continuing, aggressive exploration is recommended; there are currently3 rigs in operation on the licences and this is expected to increase to 5 rigsin early May. Commenting on the announcement, Roger Turner, Executive Chairman and CEO ofMinco said "It is both pleasing and reassuring to have independent confirmationof Minco's long-standing belief in the potential of Pallas Green. Theexploration success that we and our partners have achieved so far provides abase for our continuing drilling programme which we expect to enable us toprovide internationally recognised resource estimates for the more advancedtargets." Pallas Green Summary The Pallas Green prospecting licences (Xstrata 76.4%, Minco 23.6%) cover an areaof 294 square kilometers located in a belt approximately 25km long and 2km wide. The area lies along the south western boundary of the Irish Midland Orefieldwhich has been a major zinc producing area since the mid 1960s and currentlyhosts three producing mines at Navan, Lisheen and Galmoy. Drilling to date amounts to a total of 39,940 metres in 145 drillholes and hasresulted in the discovery of two small sulphide lenses at Castlegarde and ofthree major lenses at Tobermalug, Caherconlish South and Srahane Westrespectively. This represents partial exploration of only 30% of the area andas drilling progresses both to infill on the targets we have identified to dateand to investigate the previously unexplored areas, management expects furtherpositive results. Objectives for 2007 The 2007 work programme involves a further 6,000 metres of follow-up drilling ofthe Caherconlish South, Srahane West and Tobermalug prospects at 100 metrecentres plus 4,000 metres of regional exploration drilling as well as anairborne geophysical survey. Summary Drillhole Data The main drillhole intersections encountered so far are shown on the followingtable: CASTLEGARDEBH No From To Thickness Zn% Pb%MN-3268-4 148.24 151.50 3.26 21.20 4.05MN-3268-9 161.58 164.00 2.42 11.99 1.77MN-3268-15 155.25 158.15 2.90 18.21 2.16MN-3268-18 160.85 162.05 1.20 13.77 3.41MN-3268-18 164.62 165.13 0.51 6.17 0.51MN-3268-23 295.40 269.90 1.50 10.40 0.79 CAHERCONLISH SOUTHBH No From To Thickness Zn% Pb%MN-2529-3 332.75 334.27 1.52 4.47 0.99MN-2529-4 357.15 363.60 6.45 12.80 3.80MN-2529-5 366.95 368.40 1.45 5.39 1.18MN-2529-5 385.70 388.40 2.70 9.78 0.02MN-2529-6 361.20 362.05 0.85 1.81 0.38MN-2529-7 352.35 355.90 3.55 9.35 0.39MN-2529-8 351.40 355.80 4.40 3.90 0.34MN-2529-12 394.60 397.25 2.65 1.13 0.20MN-2529-13 354.50 357.50 3.00 6.21 0.96MN-2529-13 361.70 364.40 2.70 9.34 0.45MN-2529-14 363.20 365.70 2.50 14.96 1.45MN-2529-15 357.36 360.10 2.74 1.28 0.03MN-2529-15 392.30 395.30 3.00 1.59 0.01 SRAHANE WESTBH No From To Thickness Zn% Pb%MN-636-32 266.60 271.80 5.20 21.80 2.73MN-636-33 208.90 211.10 2.20 4.08 0.07MN-636-36 210.80 212.15 1.35 8.24 0.03MN-636-45 238.25 243.40 5.15 8.47 0.82MN-636-47 247.70 254.20 6.50 6.06 1.30 TOBERMALUGBH No From To Thickness Zn% Pb%MN-636-20 326.35 334.40 8.05 10.02 1.48MN-636-49 341.25 352.50 11.25 11.35 1.91MN-636-53 369.25 370.60 1.35 12.78 2.33MN-636-35 355.75 358.05 2.30 7.67 1.38MN-636-22 332.95 337.45 4.50 7.86 0.98MN-636-48 329.05 331.36 2.31 3.77 0.55MN-636-48 344.90 346.60 1.70 3.40 0.29MN-636-50 380.70 383.10 2.40 2.66 0.05MN-636-40 342.65 344.15 1.50 3.83 0.19MN-636-40 375.20 377.55 2.35 3.60 0.09MN-636-21 320.70 323.00 2.30 1.01 0.02MN-636-13 262.40 263.06 0.66 4.46 0.03MN-636-10 263.97 238.31 1.34 6.47 0.40MN-636-8 218.92 219.43 0.51 1.59 0.04MN-636-24 348.50 350.50 2.00 6.91 0.47MN-636-24 431.90 445.30 13.40 0.55 0.06 The detailed geological report, entitled "An Evaluation of the Potential of thePallas Green Property" is available on the Minco website at www.minco.ie underthe "News" tab. Qualified Person The above information has been reviewed and verified by Mr. Roger Turner, CEOand Chairman of Minco, for the purposes of the Guidance Note for Mining, Oil andGas Companies issued by the London Stock Exchange in March 2006. Mr. Turner,with 40 years of mining engineering, management and consulting experience,graduated as a mining engineer from the Camborne School of Mines, has an M.Sc.degree in Economic Geology from Leicester University and is a member in goodstanding with the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and a UK CharteredEngineer. About Minco Minco PLC is an AIM quoted precious and base metals exploration and developmentcompany with silver projects in Mexico and zinc exploration in Ireland. For further information, www.minco.ie or contact: Roger Turner: Executive Chairman +44 (0)20 7397 8155Terence McKillen: Director of Exploration & Business Development +1 416 362 8243/6686Simon Beardsmore: Commercial Manager +44 (0)20 7397 8159Chris Rollason: (UK NOMAD) Collins Stewart +44 (0)20 7523 8350Nick Bias: (UK IR & PR) BuckBias +44 (0)7887 920 530Tom McCormack (Ireland PR) ConneXions +353 (0)1 230 3015 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange