Uruguay Mineral’s Arenal drilling shines

Vancouver – Since Uruguay Mineral Exploration (UME-V) acquired the Uruguayan assets of Crystallex International (KRY-T) in late-2003, they’ve launched an aggressive drilling program aimed at advancing its projects in the Minas de Corrales goldfield located in the northcentral portion of the country.

Infill definition drilling at the Arenal deposit has delivered further significant results, confirming the mineralization that will constitute ore in the proposed Phase One open pit operation.

Consistency in both width of the mineralized zone and grade have set the stage for the initial Arenal pit to be in operation by late-2004.

Both RC and core drilling (128 and 23 holes respectively) have covered a strike length of 350 metres of the Arenal main ore zone and have covered it to a depth of 250 metres down-dip (130 metres vertical depth). The ore zone remains open in all directions.

Step-out drilling, outside the current pit design, delivered exceptional gold intercepts for the company. Results include:

• Hole ALDDH19 This diamond drill hole intersected 45.3 metres (from 82.8 metres) that graded 6.47 grams gold per tonne;
• Hole ALDDH21 The step-out hole cut 2 metres (from 89.8 metres) grading 0.72 grams gold, then tied into a much thicker 35.9 metres (starting at 111.7 metres) that averaged 2.66 grams gold;
• Hole ALDDH22 Two metres of core (from 82 metres) assayed 0.9 grams gold, followed by 28 metres (from 106 metres) of 4.59 grams gold;
• Hole ALDDH23 This hole, collared at same location as ALDDH22 but drilled at a steeper dip, intersected 57 metres (from 93.6 metres) of 7.16 grams gold.

Through the Crystallex asset acquisition, UME has consolidated the land holdings in the Minas de Corrales gold belt, now holding about 50,000 hectares. The belt is situated at the western end of the Isla Cristalina greenstone belt with mineralization generally associated with a highly sheared complex of Precambrian felsic intrusives and mafic volcanic-sedimentary greenstone assemblages.

Gold mineralization at Arenal, and at San Gregorio, is hosted in a east-west trending San Gregorio shear zone. Deposits are known to occur in relation to intersections of the main shear with northwest trending faults.

Arenal has a measured resource of 1.5 million tonnes, grading 2.96 grams gold per tonne, have been outlined with the area of the planned Phase 1 pit. An additional 7.6 million tonnes of inferred resource grading 2.26 grams gold has been calculated.

As of the latest figures, the company reports 41.8 million shares outstanding. The issue has rallied up to the $5.00 per share level recently, establishing a new 52 week high over the past month.