Arc completes E. Java gold project permit conversion

Australian mineral exploration firm Arc Exploration Limited announced Monday that the conversion of the Trenggalek Mining License (KP) gold prospect in East Java to a Mining Business Licence (IUP) has been completed in accordance with the new Indonesian Mining Law.

The Exploration IUP, covering the original KP area of 30,044 hectares, has been signed by the Regent of Trenggalek and is valid for 4 years, the company said.

The company recently announced that it has entered into a strategic alliance with a leading drilling contractor in Indonesia to undertake a 5,000-rn diamond drilling program on the Trenggalek project at its own cost in exchange for shares and options in Arc.

Preparations for this drilling are on track to commence early in 2010, it said.

The primary targets of the drilling program are multiple prospects containing epithermal goldsilver-bearing quartz veins, high-level hydrothermal breccias and silica cappings having geological settings and mineralization characteristics analogous to known high-grade gold deposits found along Indonesia?s highly prospective magmatic arcs.

Arc has 95 percent of stake in the project. (denny)