Release: Oropa: Increased drilling activities at Pungkut gold project to test mineral potential of Sihayo and Sambung prospects

April 18, 2006 - Oropa is pleased to announce the commencement of combined drilling programmes at its Sambung and Sihayo 1 prospects, North Sumatra, Indonesia.

Oropa will use three drill rigs to test 2 target areas identified by regional soil geochemistry, geological interpretation and high-grade gold values in drilling and trenching. Two rigs are already on site, while the third rig will be mobilized to the Sambung prospect in the northern block towards the end of this month.

Better trenching results include 24m @ 4.77g/t Au, 48m @ 7.34g/t Au and 3m @ 55.5g/t Au. Best drilling results of 13.8m @ 2.59g/t Au from surface (SAMDD004), 5.2m @ 3.79g/t Au from surface (SAMDD005) and 0.2m @ 443g/t Au from 22.55m were achieved at Sambung.

The style of gold mineralisation at Sambung and Sihayo 1 prospects is very similar to that observed at the 610,000 Oz Au (Inferred Resource) Sihayo 1 North deposit, located approximately 2km towards grid west. Gold mineralisation primarily occurs as a siliceous jasperoid unit, which has typically developed within sub-vertical breccia systems and as sub-horizontal lenses at the contact between. Tertiary sediments and an older Permian sequence.

Target Area 1- Sihayo 1 Prospect

Current geological modelling and interpretation suggests that sub-horizontal jasperoid mineralisation developed on the Tertiary contact may extend approximately 2 km laterally from the Sihayo 1 North deposit to the Sihayo 1 and Sambung prospects.

Drilling recently commenced at Target Area 1, which will test for the presence of jasperoid mineralisation on the Tertiary contact and will also explore for underlying primary structures that may have acted as conduits for gold mineralising hydrothermal fluids.

Target Area 2 - Sambung Prospect

Gold mineralisation in soil geochemistry, rock chip sampling, trenching and drilling is present over a zone of jasperoid material with a strike length greater than 1.2 km.

Mapping of the area suggests that the majority of this jasperoid occurs as a fan of colluvial rubble and boulders, eroded from the mineralised Tertiary contact position. The flat-lying nature of the colluvial surface mineralisation (up to 14m thick in drilling to date) makes this an attractive target due to a minimal strip ratio in a mining scenario.

Drilling will shortly commence to test the preserved Tertiary contact position for the presence of jasperoid mineralisation with a series of deeper holes toward grid north of the colluvial jasperoid zone.

The third rig that is scheduled to arrive on site towards the end of April will complete a number of shallow, vertical holes through this colluvial material with a view towards establishing a near surface gold resource amenable to open pit mining.

Geological mapping and interpretation suggests the presence of a primary mineralising structure running close to or beneath the colluvial jasperoid fan at Sambung. A number of deeper angle holes designed to test for the presence of this structure are scheduled. (end of release)