EurOmax drills Bulgarian gold (December 07, 2004)

Vancouver – EurOmax Resources (EOX-V) (previously Omax Resources), once primarily focused on Alberta oil and gas, has redeployed its much of its exploration effort on Bulgaria in southeastern Europe, where it has been actively drilling gold and copper targets and has intersected significant zones of mineralization.

Five reverse circulation (RC) drill-holes at the Petelovo zone on the Popintsi project, in central Bulgaria, intersected a broad zone of gold mineralization from surface to depths of over 80 metres.

The company delineated targets at the project, situated in the middle of the heavily mineralized Panagyurishte metallogenic zone, based on an extensive argillic and phyllic alteration assemblages over several square kilometres of Upper Cretaceous andesites hosting quartz veins, stockworks, and breccias with evident sulphides. Some of the initial RC drill results include:

• Hole MP401 A 50 metre intercept from surface averaged 1.5 grams gold per tonne;
• Hole MP403 An 82-metre section (from 2 metres depth) returned 3.8 grams gold and 6.2 grams silver, including a higher-grade portion of 7 metres averaging 14.9 grams gold and 16.1 grams silver;
• Hole MP405 The RC hole intersected 37 metres (from 2 metres downhole) assaying 2.6 grams gold.

Limited, wide-spaced vertical drilling was conducted by a Bulgarian state-company in 1984-85. Additionally, extensive historic and ancient workings are evident that had targeted high-grade portions of copper-gold mineralization throughout the project area.

The regional Panagyurishte metallogenic belt traces west through Serbia and Romania and hosts a number of large porphyry copper and epithermal-massive sulphide deposits. Just 2 km north of EurOmax’s licence area is the Assarel open pit copper mine, originally a 350-million-tonne porphyry deposit grading about 0.5% copper and one of the larger mines in southeastern Europe, it has operated for about 30-years.

EurOmax acquired the 20,000-hectare Popintsi licence in mid-2004 from the Bulgarian government. Data that came with the project includes drill results, trench-adit sampling and an 8,000 tonne bulk sample extracted by the State exploration company in 1995. The bulk sample returned an average grade of 4.7 grams gold and showed 94% recovery using vat leaching.

The company, already holding a number of oil and gas projects in Alberta and Turkey, acquired several mineral exploration licences in Bulgaria in 2004 after reviewing projects throughout the southeastern European region.

With 30.2 million shares outstanding, the company has a market capitalization of $14-million based on its recent trading level of 46 per share.