Exco Resources acquires stake at Bengkulu gold-copper project

Australian listed mining company announced on Wednesday that the company had acquired majority interest in gold-copper discovery known as the Manna project, located in province of Bengkulu.

Exco holds a 60 percent participating interest in the project in joint venture with PT Danmar Explorindo. Exco will be the manager of the joint venture. The joint venture has an option to acquire the mineral license for the project for a price of A$175,000, with an additional A$100,000 and a 4 percent net profit interest payable out of production.

The Manna discovery was made by an Indonesian prospector following up reports of alluvial gold in a previously unexplored area. Initial work by the prospector identified widespread epithermal and porphyry style alteration with associated gold and copper mineralisation.

After securing the option over the project, Exco/Danmar conducted their own investigations into the discovery, with initial results being highly encouraging. Exco has verified the reported alteration and mineralisation and discovered additional areas of alteration and gold in streams. Regional stream samples show the gold and copper at

Manna is hosted by a large alteration system with the associated elements Mo, As, Pb and Zn.

The epithermal gold and porphyry copper style of mineralisation is typical of the volcanic arc setting, which is host to a number of world-class copper-gold deposits within the arc trending through Indonesia and New Guinea. In the same arc setting to the south-east of Manna is Newmont's Batu Hijau deposit on Sumbaya, Island, and further along in Irian Jaya and New Guinea are the Grasberg, OK Tedi and Porgera deposits.

Exco's joint venture partner, PT Danmar Explorindo, has over 10 years operational experience in Indonesia and particularly southern Sumatra. The project area has very good logistics with scaled road access to the licence area and good access to the coast. The local and provincial governments have both indicated strong support for exploration work to be undertaken in the area.

Exco is currently undertaking a program of detailed stream, soil and rock chip sampling over the entire licence area. Initial results from the current program are expected to be available later next month.

Following evaluation of the results from the current phase of work, an initial drilling program is planned to commence in May to test the main areas of mineralisation.(alex)