EMED Mining begins drilling programme at early-stage gold prospects in SlovakiaEMED Mining begins drilling programme at early-stage gold prospects in Slovakia

EMED Mining (LON:EMED) has begun the 2010 exploration drilling programme in Slovakia on the Banska Stiavnica and Hodrusa exploration licences. The programme will focus on three prospects - Bursa, Quartzlager and Mohr Shaft - located near the small-scale Rozalia Mine.

The company said it has identified priority drilling targets following a review of data from the extensive historical mining in the district, as well as data from recent drilling at the Rozalia Mine.

EMED noted that it has an informal alliance with the owners of the Rozalia Mine, which is located on a small mining licence within the Hodrusa licence area. The small mine exploits flat, high-grade, gold-bearing quartz veins using traditional hand-held mining methods.
"The combination of extensive historical mining data and modern exploration tools provides an exceptional opportunity for EMED Mining to make another significant discovery of economic mineralisation in central Slovakia,” the group said.

EMED highlighted that it is testing for epithermal gold mineralisation and wide zones of Rozalia-style gold mineralisation which may be amenable to larger scale, bulk underground mining methods. At the Bursa prospect the company intends to test for near-surface epithermal gold potential, with three 150m drill holes planned, and at Quartzlager, three 100m holes will test near-surface Rozalia-style gold mineralisation.

The Mohr Shaft prospect was identified via structural analysis, with a 500m-wide prospective zone returning positive gold-silver ratio, which according to EMED is indicative of Rozalia-style gold mineralisation. The company will drill two 500m drill holes at the Mohr Shaft.

The Banska Stiavnica-Hodrusa exploration licences are located 38km west of the Detva license, which hosts one of EMED’s key projects, the Biely Vrch deposit.

"Our exploration of the prolific Banska Stiavnica-Hodrusa District is at an early stage as our main focus in Slovakia has been on drilling at Biely Vrch and analogous porphyry-gold prospects. The Biely Vrch discovery is now progressing through the feasibility and permitting processes towards development," EMED MD Harry Anagnostaras-Adams commented.

At the end of June, EMED’s Biely Vrch reached a significant milestone, as it was awarded "exclusive deposit" status by the Slovakian authorities, marking the first statutory step of the permitting process.

The "exclusive deposit" classification gives priority to the land being used for mining activities over all other land uses. The company and its environmental consultants can now proceed with preparing the Preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment.

Furthermore, EMED told investors that its contractor, AMC Consultants, has completed an updated Scoping Study which takes into account community consultation and project refinements, with a new site selected for ore leaching along with the detailed design of the entire site layout. According to EMED the preferred site and its topography will reduce the impact on the community. Also, enhanced environmental protection measures have been incorporated into the design.

Overall, EMED acknowledged that the Biely Vrch scoping study’s parameters remain essentially unchanged at this stage including: mining 3Mtpa of ore at a waste-to-ore ratio of 1:1; a recovered grade of 0.6 to 0.7g/t gold;   producing approximately 60,000 ounces per annum for 10 years.

The company emphasised that Biely Vrch has additional drill-confirmed potential below the current Mineral Resource - 41.7Mt at 0.79g/t gold, containing 1.1Moz - and this depth potential will be evaluated further after progressing the open-cut mine towards development, particularly  the relatively higher grade core of the deposit, which increases in grade with depth and remains open at depth.

Elsewhere, in its other operations, EMED is working towards the restart of the Proyecto Rio Tinto (PRT) in the Andalucía province of southern Spain. The PRT copper mine is slated to re-start in Q4 2010 and with production scheduled to begin in 2011.  The mine has a JORC-compliant mineral resource of 205Mt (million tonnes) at 0.46% copper for 0.95Mt of copper.