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News
Entrée Gold Expands Its Independent Exploration Programs
August 18, 2005
Vancouver, B.C., Thursday, August 18, 2005 - Entrée Gold Inc. (TSX-V: ETG; AMEX: EGI – “Entrée” or the “Company”) provides an update on exploration programs on projects outside the area covered by its Earn-in Agreement with Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (NYSE: IVN; TSX: IVN; – “Ivanhoe”).
Recent equity investments from Ivanhoe and Rio Tinto plc (NYSE: RTP; LSE: RIO.L – “Rio Tinto”), have increased the Company’s operating cash to approximately CDN$26 million and allowed it to expand its exploration budgets for its Lookout Hill and Ulziit Uul projects. The current program at Lookout Hill has been increased from US$3 million to an estimated US$5.1 million; while the program budget at Ulziit Uul has been increased from US$ 0.9 million to an estimated US$ 1.9 million.
In addition to drilling currently underway on its Zone I copper-gold showing at Lookout Hill, Entrée has secured a second drill and is now drilling on the Bayan Ovoo copper showing. A third drill has been contracted and is expected to be in operation in September.
Greg Crowe, Entrée’s President and CEO, commented: “The recent funding from Ivanhoe and Rio Tinto has allowed us to ramp-up our independent exploration significantly. We have a very large land holding and our past reconnaissance work has identified a large number of highly-prospective drill targets. With three drills soon to be turning, our goal is to advance our understanding of the potential of these targets as quickly as possible. At the same time, we will continue to generate new targets through the surface geological, geochemical and geophysical exploration that has proved so effective to date.”
Planned ongoing exploration at Lookout Hill includes:
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Continued drilling of geophysical targets at Zones I, II, III;
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Drilling of the Bayan Ovoo copper showings;
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An extension of the geophysical (IP, MT and magnetometer) grid south from Zone I/II to areas of known copper oxide mineralization and coincidental soil and geophysical anomalies along the western margin of Ivanhoe’s Oyu Tolgoi concession;
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Geophysical and geochemical testing of a recently discovered epithermal gold target known as the “Ring Dyke” prospect; and
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Continued reconnaissance evaluation of the remaining 140,000 hectares of Lookout Hill that lie outside the 40,000 hectare Entrée - Ivanhoe Agreement area.
Exploration Update
Drilling at Lookout Hill, to date, has included two holes on the Zone III epithermal gold system and seven holes on the Zone I alteration area. Drilling has been slow due to the presence of extensive clay alteration and associated technical difficulties.
At Zone III, drilling has confirmed extensive areas of silica alteration hosting elevated gold values. Additional work will be required to examine this system along strike and to depth.
Drilling at the northern end of Zone I has confirmed the continuation to depth of intense advanced argillic alteration. This extensive alteration was previously defined on surface (>3.5 km along strike) through geological mapping, sampling and IP surveys conducted during the last three field seasons. Pyritic zones within this alteration assemblage carry anomalous copper and gold values. The presence of the clay mineral, dickite, along pyritic fractures within altered tuffs, is similar to alteration noted in dacitic tuffs that directly overlie variably mineralized basalt at Ivanhoe’s Oyu Tolgoi property.
Drilling of Zone I is in the early stages. Geophysical surveys are being conducted southward to examine the 2.6 km extent between the south end of Zone I and copper targets identified on Lookout Hill immediately west of Oyu Tolgoi. Drilling of selected geophysical and geochemical targets continues.
Separately, geophysical surveys are nearing completion on the Company’s Ulziit Uul property, located approximately 120 km north of Lookout Hill. Geochemical and geological surveys are ongoing. Drilling of selected targets is expected to commence in September.
QUALITY ASSURANCE AND CONTROL
Robert Cann, P.Geo., Entrée’s Vice-President, Exploration and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for the preparation of technical information in the Company’s news releases. Split core samples were prepared and analyzed at SGS Mongolia LLC in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Prepared standards and blanks are inserted at the project site to monitor the quality control of the assay data.
ABOUT ENTRÉE GOLD INC.
Entrée Gold Inc. (www.entreegold.com) is an exploration stage junior resource company engaged in the exploration of gold and copper prospects. The Company is a large landholder in Mongolia’s south Gobi Desert, near the Chinese border. Entrée maintains 100% interest in the 179,590 hectare Lookout Hill (Shivee Tolgoi) property which completely surrounds Ivanhoe’s 8,500 hectare, Turquoise Hill (Oyu Tolgoi) holdings.
Under an “Earn-In Agreement” announced in October 2004, Ivanhoe has the right to earn an interest in approximately 22% (40,000 hectares) of Entrée’s Lookout Hill property. By the terms of the agreement, Ivanhoe must spend a minimum of US $20 million in order to earn any interest in the mineral rights to the project property and may acquire up to a 70% interest in mineralization above a depth of 560 m and an 80% interest in mineralization below a depth of 560 m by spending US$35 million. Thereafter, Entrée has the right to require Ivanhoe to fund its share of subsequent joint venture costs through to production, to be recovered from production cash flow.
Entrée is a Tier 1 listed company that trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol “ETG” and on the AMEX under the symbol “EGI”.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Primoris Group
Investor Relations
Tel: 866-368-7330
Email: [email protected]
or
Entrée Gold Inc.
Mona Forster, Business Manager
Tel: 604-687-4777
Website: www.entreegold.com
The TSX Venture Exchange 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.