Wide, high-grade intercept at Entre Gold’s Copper Flats

Vancouver – Deep drilling by Ivanhoe Mines (IVN-T) on Entre Gold’s (ETG-V) Copper Flats project, adjacent to Oyu Tolgoi in the Gobi Desert of southern Mongolia, cut a wide intercept of high-grade copper.

Hole 6A returned 608 metres (from 1,084 metres depth) averaging 3.24% copper and 0.8 gram gold per tonne (for a copper equivalent grade of 3.8%). Included in the intersection was a 322 metre portion grading 4.6% copper and 1.1 grams gold (5.3% copper equivalent). The hole, a navi-drill daughter to hole 6, was positioned to test the downward extension of the mineralized system about 80 metres down-dip.

Results for hole 8, a 450-metre north-easterly step-out from hole 6, also returned a significant intercept with 324 metres (from 1,388 metres depth) assaying 2.45% copper and 1.2 grams gold. The hole was terminated, having reached the rig’s limit, short of the West Bat fault, which marks the western limit of Hugo North mineralization.

With mineralization apparently trending more northwards than north-easterly, holes 7 and 10, located 600 metres and 1.2 km respectively of hole 8, are believed to have been collared too far to the east. As a result, Ivanhoe collared hole 20, about 250 metres west of hole 7, to test the projected extension of Hugo North. Seven drill rigs are active on the Copper Flats project.

The northward plunging extension of the Hugo North mineralization extending onto Entre’s ground occurs in a quartz monzodiorite with intense quartz flooding and stockworks. Mineralization in the porphyry copper-gold system is typically chalcopyrite and bornite with associated minor visible gold.

Ivanhoe Mines’ adjacent Hugo Dummett deposit hosts a 582 million tonne indicated resource grading 1.9% copper and 0.4 gram gold, using a 0.6% copper equivalent cut-off grade. There is an additional 1.07 billion tonnes of inferred resource at 1.1% copper and 0.2 gram gold. The deposits form a major portion of the Oyu Tolgoi project, which consists of a more than 6 km long complex of copper and gold deposits.

Ivanhoe is earning up to an 80% interest in a 400 sq. km section of Entre’s Shivee Tolgoi project by spending US$35 million.

The market’s reaction to the results was bullish, with Entre Gold gaining a dime on the news to close at $1.93 per share on strong volume of over 2.3 million shares. The issue had a steady rally from the $1.40 level over the past week. The junior posts a market capitalization of $98 million given its 50.9 million shares outstanding.