Patagonia Gold Regulatory News (PGD)

30 Apr 2007 07:01

Patagonia Gold PLC30 April 2007 PATAGONIA GOLD PLC Trading Symbol PGD.L 30th April 2007 DRILLING UPDATE LA PALOMA PROPERTY. SANTA CRUZ, ARGENTINA. • Resource infill drilling on the Lomada de Leiva Project located on the La Paloma property, has reported very encouraging results in the first drill holes including 18 metres at 6.87g/t gold. • Exploration drilling on the adjacent Breccia Sofia Prospect has revealed promising mineralized structures. • Chlumsky, Armbrust and Meyer (CAM), consulting and engineering group from Lakewood, Colorado, U.S.A., have undertaken a site visit and commenced work on a NI43-101 compliant Resource estimate on Lomada de Leiva. The La Paloma property block covering over 44 square kilometres is locatedapproximately 40km to the south of the town of Perito Moreno in the Santa Cruzprovince of Argentina. An infill drilling campaign commenced in February of this year on the 100% ownedLomada de Leiva Project. To date 3,024 metres in 21 HQ diamond drill holes and945 metres in 8 Reverse Circulation (RC) holes have been completed. Results from the first 9 holes are now available and significant intersectionsare listed in the table below. Drill Hole No. From Metres Interval metres Gold g/t LPD-01 9.0 18.0 6.87 including 10.0 10.0 10.86 LPD-02 35.0 21.0 4.12 including 46.0 7.0 5.17 LPD-03 90.0 13.0 7.26 including 94.0 6.0 13.45 LPD-04 63.0 8.0 1.19 and 97.0 12.0 1.32 LPD-06 64.0 24.0 3.05 including 82.0 5.0 7.16 LPD-07 38.0 20.0 2.66 including 48.0 4.0 5.89 LPD-09 73.0 12.0 2.01 and 88.0 10.0 2.07 Exploration drilling on the adjacent Breccia Sofia prospect is also ongoing. Todate 1,816 metres in 12 RC holes have been completed. Results are pending. Geology and Mineralisation Mineralisation at the Lomada de Leiva Project is hosted in Jurassic volcanicsand volcanoclastic sediments. A north north-east structural corridor dippingsteeply to the east contains brecciated and variably silicified volcanic andtuffaceous rocks which have been cut by a network of fine anastomosing quartzveins and veinlets. The breccia also contains clasts of chalcedonic quartz veinmaterial. Gold is likely to be hosted in the breccia matrix as well as the veinquartz and earlier chalcedonic veins. Petrological work is being conducted on anumber of core samples to determine the gold paragenesis in the reporting zones. The main zone of interest at Lomada de Leiva is mapped over 600 metres on strikeand greater than 20 metres in width with significant potential extending towardsBreccia Sofia, some 500 metres to the north east. PG's drill hole LLD-06containing 24m @ 3.1g/t Au is approximately 300m to the north of the previouslydrilled hole DDHLP-36 which contained 15.5m @ 2.28 g/t Au The Company's initial interrogation of the previous drilling by Barrick and thecurrent exploration drilling being conducted by the Company indicatesprospectivity to the east under gravel cover as well as potential forrepetitions or sub parallel structures to the south east. Drill programme The current drilling programme at Lomada de Leiva has been designed to validate,infill and extend the previous drilling by Barrick. The total Resource baseddrill programme contains 40 holes for an estimated 5,800 metres of both diamonddrilling and RC drilling. The programme includes a number of 'scissors' and'twins' of both the Barrick drilling and diamond to RC hole comparison forquality control purposes. A programme of exploration drilling on the peripheryof the resource area contains a planned 25 holes for a further 3,500m of bothdiamond and RC drilling. This programme will be started before the winter. At Breccia Sofia the exploration programme currently underway contains a plannedtotal of 25 holes for 2,500m of RC drilling. Resource-NI43-101 Chlumsky, Armbrust and Meyer L.L.C. (CAM), an international mineral resources,consulting and engineering group from Lakewood, Colorado, U.S.A. have beenengaged by Patagonia Gold to complete a resource estimate, to Canadian NationalInstrument 43-101, on the Lomada de Leiva Project area. CAM will also give recommendations for infill, down-dip and metallurgicaldrilling at Lomada de Leiva in preparation for environmental and scopingstudies. Sample pulps and coarse residues from the current drill programme have beenselected for initial metallurgical test work in order to quantify the recoveryfrom the ore material. Gravity extraction test work is also being undertaken. Marc Sale, (BSC. Geology, member AusIMM, member AIG) a Director and consultantto Patagonia Gold Plc and a qualified person as defined in National Instrument43-101, has reviewed and verified all scientific or technical mining disclosurecontained in this press release. ENDS For more information, please contact: Bill Humphries/Richard Prickett Anthony Cardew/Tim RobertsonPatagonia Gold Plc Tel: +44 (0) 20 7930 0777Tel: + 44 (0)20 7409 7444 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7925 0647www.patagoniagold.com Email: tim.robertson@cardewgroup.comTrading Symbol PGD.L This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange