IGC Resources ties into Blackburn high-grade (March 17, 2005)

Vancouver – Initial drilling by IGC Resources (IGC-V) on its recently acquired 340-sq.-km Blackburn project, located in the far southwest of Western Australia, has cut significant gold values.

Targeting the project’s Jinka’s Hill deposit, the company’s initial 1,200-metre reverse circulation (RC) drill program focused on extensions to its northern shoot and has tied into continued high-grade gold structures.

RC drill results include hole JRC57, which intersected 8 metres (from 98-metres depth) grading 14.5 grams gold per tonne, including a couple of one-metre intercepts averaging 41.6 grams and 27.6 grams gold. Hole JRC59 cut 4 metres (also from 98-metres depth) of 8.8 grams gold, including one metre assaying 16.9 grams gold.

Over half of the initial one-dozen RC drill holes returned intercepts greater than 5 grams gold over 2-metre widths. The northern shoot has so far been traced continuously for over 200 metres beyond the northern end of the past-producing pit.

IGC Resources plans a further 3,800 metres of RC drilling in its initial program to test three postulated shoots at Jinka’s Hill.

A 2004 technical and valuation report calculated a National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource of about 240,000 contained ounces of gold, predominantly in the inferred category. The resource occurs primarily within the Jinka’s Hill and Dingo Hill deposits that were previously open pit mined from the mid-to-late 1990s.

The company is examining the possibility of underground operations to exploit the high-grade shoots. An existing on-site processing plant will require refurbishment and upgrading to be utilized in any proposed production. Metallurgical testing of the mineralized material is also planned.

Blackburn is situated in a highly metamorphosed gneissic terrain of the Yilgarn block, within the Badgebup Greenstone Belt. Mineralization is hosted in a suite of mafic-felsic granulites.

Jinka’s Hill mineralization occurs as a series of high-grade northeast-trending silica-rich shoots within a 20 km northwest-orientated corridor, the Badgebup mineralized trend. The shoots remain open on strike and to depth. Further exploration will be targeted at identifying additional shoots along the corridor.

Additionally, the geologic setting of project area coupled with the presence of quartz monzonite intrusive provides a target for possible gold-copper porphyry mineralization similar to the Boddington deposit.

The 11-million ounce Boddington gold project, owned 44.4% by Newmont Mining (NEM-N), 33.3% by AngloGold Ashanti (AU-N) and 22.2% by Newcrest Mining (NCMGF-Q), occurs within a similar greenstone environment about 140 km west-northwest of Blackburn. The Boddington joint-venture anticipates production to recommence in 2008 with annual estimated output of about 600,000 ounces of gold over a 15-year operational life. The deposit also contains over 210,000 tonnes of copper. Mining of oxide ore at the open pit mine concluded in 2001, producing almost 5-million ounces of gold.

IGC Resources recently acquired a 21-year sublease to explore and develop Blackburn and the Fraser Range gold project (located about 500 km east of Blackburn) from private Australian company Great Southern Resources (GSR). Under the sublease, GSR received an initial payment of A$750,000 on signing, A$500,000 on the second anniversary and an additional A$750,000 on the third anniversary. GSR is a non-arms-length company controlled by a director of IGC Resources.

The company recently applied for two uranium exploration licence tenements in Western Australia. The applications cover an area of Proterozoic sandstones and Late Cretaceous sediments in a region with known uranium mineralization.

With 12.5-million shares outstanding, IGC Resources has a market capitalization of $5.4 million at its recent trading level of 43 per share. Its trading range over the past year is 30-65 per share.