TSX-VN: "MEX"
TORONTO, May 1 /CNW/ - Kim Harris, Chief Executive Officer, Midlands
Minerals Corporation ("Midlands" or the "Company") announces that sampling and
re-assaying of pulps at Sian Goldfields Limited ("Sian") confirm Sian's
previous assays, and the historical resource now qualifies as a current
resource.
Marc Boisvert, P. Eng., the Qualified Person who produced the NI 43-101
report, did the re-sampling and historical resource review and supervised the
technical program. Midlands now considers the Esaase historical resource above
100 m level (120 m depth) equivalent to a current Indicated Resource and the
historical resource below 100 m level equivalent to a current Inferred
Resource.
Confirmation of Historical Resource:
Sian is a past gold producer. Various mineral resource/ore reserve
estimates were undertaken during the course of the discovery and development
of the Esaase and the other satellite deposits. The historical resource
reported by Gleniff Exploration and Mining (Irl) (1996) ("Gleniff") at Esaase
above the 100 m level is now considered a current Indicated Resource, and the
Lanzhou Engineering and Research Institute for Non-Ferrous Metallurgy from
China (1997) ("Lanzhou") historical resource below Esaase the 100 m level is
now considered a current Inferred Resource.
Lanzhou estimated "Chinese Category D Reserves" below the 100 m level for
three potential levels (40 m, -10 m, below -10 m) were 562,325 tons at
5.71 g/t Au at Esaase. After reviewing the Lanzhou ore estimates calculated by
the block longitudinal technique, the historical resource is based on
sufficient drill hole intersections which provide confidence in the
interpretation of the geological framework and allows the assumption of
continuity of the mineralization. The estimated Category D Resource located
below the 100 m level is considered equivalent to an Inferred Resource.
For other gold occurrences - Ampeha, Esaase East, Besease, Atonsu and
Esaase North - resource estimates reported by Sian are considered by Midlands
as conceptual at this time, and their order of magnitude will be used only to
determine priorities for exploration targets.
The Esaase ore zone has been diamond drilled with holes between section
S200 and N 200 over a strike length of 400m. Above the 100 m level, drilling
was at the spacing of 50 m by 25 m, and below 100 m level, the grid spacing
was 100 m x 50 m.
In 1996, consulting firm Gleniff defined an estimated resource at Esaase
using the Definition of Reserves and Resources - adopted by the Institution of
Mining and Metallurgy (London) in December 1991 - for the mineralized zone
above the 100 m level. Qualified Persons calculated the historical resource in
accordance with NI 43-101 standards and definitions. The Indicated Mineral
Resource for material above the 100 m level (120 m depth), using a 0.5 g/t Au
cut off with high-grade cut to 23.76 g/t Au, is as follows:
Oxide Zone 125,000 tonnes grading 2.65 g/t (cut), 3.16 g/t Au
(uncut)
Sulphide Zone 1,230,000 tonnes grading 2.24 g/t (cut), 2.63 g/t Au
(uncut)
Total 1,355,000 tonnes grading 2.28/t (cut)
In reviewing the historical resource, previous assay results were
confirmed by the re-assays of pulps, mapping, and sampling of the ore zone in
the Esaase pit. 1561 pulps of the total 3176 assays reported by Sian in drill
logs at Esaase deposit were retrieved and, of these, a total of 680 samples
(21%) were re-sampled. This represents 16-hole intersections (66%) of the
24 ore grade intervals used by Gleniff for the sulphide ore historical
resource estimates above the 100 m level (120 m depth).
A comparison of Sian and Midlands' assays shows 256 of 680 pairs, or only
38%, with differences of over 50%. When considering individual pairs for ore
grade ( greater than 0.5 g/t Au) only about 7% of the pairs show differences.
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Summary Re-sampling Pulps
Esaase Zone - Sulphide Mineral Resource - Re-sample of Ore block
Intervals
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% meter Math. Math.
interval Number Average Average
re- of Sian SGS
Hole ID From To sampled Sample Au_ppm Au_ppm
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ZKES0160-1 52.9 60 100% 5 1.78 1.68
ZKES0110-3 53.7 64.2 57% 7 1.10 1.34
ZKES0110-3 76.5 86.2 79% 8 2.25 2.32
ZKES0110-2 28.8 38.4 69% 7 1.37 1.49
ZKES0060-3 40.3 47.5 61% 4 3.63 3.76
ZKES0010-3 94.1 117.6 76% 18 5.73 2.49
ZKES0010-2 52.8 67.2 88% 13 2.91 3.49
ZKE0040-4 79.2 101.6 48% 10 3.22 3.54
ZKE0090-2 47.7 70.8 84% 20 2.12 1.65
ZKE0090-3 80.8 130.7 73% 40 0.96 0.86
ZKE0140-5 54.9 78.9 67% 16 0.48 0.59
ZKE0140-6 102.15 127.5 39% 10 3.60 3.87
ZKE0190-2 90.7 126 87% 33 1.81 1.81
ZKE0190-3 84.8 105.4 82% 18 3.14 4.00
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Exploration Potential:
On March 24, 2006, Midlands raised $2,875,000 in a private placement
brokered by Dominick & Dominick Securities Inc. and Haywood Securities Inc.
"The Company is moving expeditiously on exploration on its Ghana and Tanzania
gold properties", says Kim Harris.
The Company considers the Sian property an exploration priority for the
following reasons:
1. The property is located in a particularly favourable geological
environment that could be the northeast extension of the stratigraphy
hosting recent large size discovery of Newmont's Mining Company's
Akyem (+ 8 million oz) deposit located 30 km SW of Sian.
2. The Esaase-Ampeha type of mineralization shows some similarities with
the Akyem deposit.
3. The dimension of the mineral zoning covers a large portion of the
property, suggesting an important gold-bearing system. Esaase,
Ampeha, East-Esaase and Odumasua appear to form a corridor of greater
than 4km strike length with a width of 500 meters. This corridor
coincides with a topographic depression bordered by higher ground.
The high ground features gold showings in quartz veins.
4. Previous gold soil anomalies indicate lateral extensions for the
Esaase, Odumasua, Esaase East and Ampeha. All these gold occurrences
are carbonate-silica flooding sulphide mineralization types and form
a significant cluster area. There is potential for these occurrences
to be interconnected to part of a larger gold system.
5. Previous exploration work focused on an outcropping area which
represents a small portion (less than 5%) of the property. Midlands
considers large untested areas to have high exploration potential
along the extension of known gold showings.
6. The Esaase ore zone model indicates the best potential exploration
target is a pyritic carbonate-silica flooding shear zone. Physical
and chemical characteristics of the shear zone will permit the use of
I.P surveys and soil surveys.
The Company's geological model is a gold-bearing sulphide-carbonate-
silica flooding central trend bordered by quartz veins. First priority targets
in the next phase of exploration are sulphides mineralization (Esaase-Ampeha
style) and quartz veins (Besease-Atonsu style).
Midlands entered into an agreement with Sian on November 1, 2005. Under
the terms of this agreement, a new company, Akroma Gold Company Limited, has
been created in Ghana. The Sian's mineral assets and Mining Lease will be
transferred into the Akroma Gold Company Limited which is owned 78% by
Midlands and 22% by Sian. Sian is currently negotiating with its creditors
with regard to their share participation as a way of handling the Sian debt
issue. The Government of Ghana has a statutory 10% carried interest. It is
Midlands' intention to have the property transfers completed by the end of
May, 2006 subject to timely approvals from the Government of Ghana and Ghana
regulatory authorities. Fieldwork will begin thereafter.
Forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results,
performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from
actual results and achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these
forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statements
were made and the readers are also advised to consider such forward looking
statements while considering the risks inherent in the business of mineral
exploration.
The TSX-V has in no way passed upon the merits of the contents of this
news release and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of
this press release.
>>
%SEDAR: 00020880E
