Petaquilla trenching boosts Molejon potential (September 05, 2005)

Vancouver — Surface trenching by Petaquilla Minerals (PTQ-T) on its Molejon project, in north-central Panama, continues to return high-grade gold.

On the 244 area, trench 205B returned 51.5 metres grading 16.9 grams gold per tonne, including 25.4 metres of 28.3 grams gold. Two consecutive 1.5-metre intervals in the trench averaged 106.1 grams and 101.3 grams gold, respectively.

The 244 area is defined by a silicified hill, about 45 metres in diameter, located in the Molejon Main zone. A single drill hole by Teck Cominco (TEK-T) in 1994 intersected 30 metres of intense, pervasive silica and quartz breccia returning 8.5 metres of 21.1 grams gold in a vertical hole with poor core recovery.

The trenching on 244 indicates that it is completely mineralized and shows good potential to the northwest and southeast.

Additional sampling on the Central, Main and Northwest zones has successfully tested extensions to known mineralization. The three zones make up the area reviewed in a 1995 study where SRK Consulting reported a probable open-pit resource of 5 million tonnes grading 2.8 grams gold plus an additional 956,000 tonnes of potential resource at 3.7 grams gold at Molejon. This is equal to about 570,000 contained ounces gold in the epithermal deposit. The study was conducted prior to implementation of National Instrument 43-101.

Petaquilla plans a drill program to test depth potential of the zones, en route to a revised resource estimate.

The company, previously known as Adrian Resources, recently formalized a letter of intent with partners Inmet Mining (IMN-T) and Teck Cominco to acquire a 100% interest in the Molejon gold deposit, subject to royalties.

Molejon forms a portion of the 135-sq.-km Minera Petaquilla project area, in which Petaquilla Minerals holds a 52% interest and Inmet the remainder. Teck Cominco has an option to earn half of Petaquilla’s interest by completing a final feasibility study (one was completed in 1998) and funding Petaquilla’s share of costs to bring the main copper project into production.