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News
Entrée Acquires Options on Arizona Copper Project
May 18, 2006
Vancouver, B.C., May 18, 2006 - Entrée Gold Inc. (TSX:ETG; AMEX:EGI; Frankfurt:EKA – “Entrée” or the “Company”) has secured an option to acquire the Sol Dos copper prospect, located in the prolific Safford district, of south-eastern Arizona.
The early-stage Sol Dos property is located strategically, near the intersection of two major mineral-bearing structural trends. The northwest trend defines one of the premier copper districts in the world, hosting Phelps Dodge’s Lone Star, Dos Pobres, San Juan and Sanchez deposits, which collectively are reported to contain over 2 billion tons of leachable copper resources. The northeast-trending, Morenci lineament hosts Phelps Dodge’s Morenci Mine, which is reported to contain in excess of 16 billion pounds of copper.
Greg Crowe, Entrée President and CEO, commented: “We have been reviewing new copper-gold opportunities worldwide, since the completion of our private placements to Rio Tinto plc and Ivanhoe Mines Inc. in July 2005. This agreement is evidence that our efforts are beginning to bear fruit.”
Under the terms of the option agreement, which is subject to TSX approval, Entrée may earn a 100% interest in the Sol Dos property by spending $4 million on exploration over four years, and by making staged payments totalling $1 million in cash and 250,000 Entrée shares. Entrée’s interest would be subject to a 2% NSR royalty, one half of which it may purchase.
Mongolian Developments
Entrée continues to monitor developments in Mongolia relating to the proposed imposition of an excess profits tax. The decision of the Mongolian President, who has the power to veto the legislation, is expected before month-end. Since its surprise approval last week, the legislation has been strongly criticized, worldwide. A number of mining and exploration companies, including Entrée, have now held talks with various ministers of the Mongolian cabinet, in an effort to dissuade it from the onerous financial burden the legislation seeks to impose. The Mongolian National Mining Association, which represents Mongolian mining interests, has also mounted a strong campaign to fight the bill.
ABOUT ENTRÉE GOLD INC.
Entrée Gold Inc. (www.entreegold.com) is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on gold and copper prospects. The Company is a large landholder in Mongolia’s south Gobi Desert, near the Chinese border, and has recently acquired additional copper assets in western Mongolia.
Entrée holds a 100% interest in mineral concessions comprising the 179,590 hectare Lookout Hill (Shivee Tolgoi) property which completely surrounds the 8,500 hectare, Turquoise Hill (Oyu Tolgoi) project of Ivanhoe Mines Inc. (“Ivanhoe”).
Under an “Earn-In Agreement” announced in October 2004, Ivanhoe has the right to earn an interest in approximately 40,000 hectares of Entrée’s Lookout Hill property. Details of the Earn-In Agreement are available on Entrée’s website at www.entreegold.com and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Drilling conducted by Ivanhoe as part of the Earn-In Agreement confirmed the extension of the Hugo North Deposit onto Lookout Hill. An initial inferred resource was estimated at 190,160,000 tonnes (calculated using a 0.6% copper equivalent cut-off), averaging 1.91% copper equivalent, containing over 6.5 billion pounds of copper and 3.2 million ounces of gold (see Entrée’s news release of February 1, 2006).
Significant investments by Rio Tinto plc and Ivanhoe have contributed to Entrée’s treasury, which currently exceeds CDN$23 million. Entrée plans to use these funds to explore its wholly-owned projects in Mongolia, and acquire and explore new projects globally.
Entrée is listed for trading on the TSX under the symbol “ETG”, on the AMEX under the symbol “EGI” and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol “EKA”.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Primoris Group
Tel: 866-368-7330
Email: [email protected]
or
Monica Hamm, Investor Relations
Entrée Gold Inc.
Tel: 604-687-4777
Website: www.entreegold.com
The TSX does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This News Release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements which relate to future events. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may”, “should”, “expects”, “plans”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “estimates”, “predicts”, “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our or our industry’s actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.
While these forward-looking statements, and any assumptions upon which they are based, are made in good faith and reflect our current judgment regarding the direction of our business, actual results will almost always vary, sometimes materially, from any estimates, predictions, projections, assumptions or other future performance suggested herein. Except as required by applicable law, including the securities laws of the United States, the Company does not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements to conform these statements to actual results. Readers are referred to the sections entitled “Risk Factors” in the Company’s periodic filings with the British Columbia Securities Commission, which can be viewed at www.SEDAR.com, and with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, which can be viewed at www.SEC.gov.