EuroZinc Assembles Largest Exploration Land Package in History of Iberian Pyrite Belt in Portugal Tuesday May 16, 8:00 am ET
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(MARKET WIRE)--May 16, 2006 -- EuroZinc Mining Corporation (TSX:EZM.TO - News)(AMEX:EZM - News) is pleased to announce that the government of Portugal has granted the Company four new exploration concessions in the Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB)---Castro Verde, Albernoa, Mertola and Alcoutim---giving the Company the largest exploration land package ever assembled by a single company in the IPB of Portugal. The IPB is one of the most prospective belts in the world for base metal deposits and is host to more than 85 deposits that total in excess of 1.7 billion tonnes of massive sulphide. ADVERTISEMENT
The four new concessions, along with the Malhadinha concession granted on the 24th of October, 2005, cover an area of 2,683 square kilometres, and represent most of the IPB from the Spanish border in the southeast to the Lousal mine in the northwest, a distance of over 100 kilometres. The 2006 surface exploration program on these concessions and the mining concessions they surround is budgeted at US$10 million, and is part of the Company's overall strategy of developing internal opportunities by completing systematic exploration adjacent to its flagship operations.
The concession agreements provide EuroZinc with the exclusive right to undertake exploration on the Albernoa, Mertola and Alcoutim concessions for a period of three years. Following the initial three years, EuroZinc has the option to extend the agreement for two-one year periods with a 50% reduction in the area after each year extension, or the Company can apply to have the exploration concession converted to an exploitation concession. In the case of the Castro Verde concession, which surrounds the Neves-Corvo mining lease, EuroZinc has the exclusive right to undertake exploration on the concession for a period of five years. Following the initial five years, EuroZinc has the option to extend the agreement for three-one year periods with a 50% reduction in the area after each year extension, or the Company can apply to have the exploration concession converted to an exploitation concession. Minimum annual work expenditures on these four concessions total EUR 600,000 with annual cash payments totaling EUR 70,000.
The four concessions cover the favorable stratigraphy that hosts, and is on strike to, the Neves-Corvo, Aljustrel, Lousal, Juliana and Sao Domingo mines. Three-dimensional inversion software will be used to re-process historic gravity and magnetic data to highlight areas that may be related to mineralization. Re-processing of gravity and magnetic data, as well as compilation of all historic geology, geophysics and drilling will commence in the next few weeks when the large database is received from the government. The Company will prioritize targets identified from this work for additional geophysics and/or diamond drilling to be completed in the third and fourth quarters of this year. The company believes that new deposits can be identified at much greater depths using this new technology.
EuroZinc Mining Corporation is a Canadian based company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and mining of base metal deposits internationally. The Company owns the Neves-Corvo mine in Portugal, which is currently the largest and highest grade underground copper mine in Europe, and will soon become a zinc mine as well. The Company also owns and is preparing to reopen the Aljustrel mine in Portugal, which will be one of the largest zinc mines in Europe and will also produce lead, silver and copper.
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