Echo Resources Drills Encouraging Results at Orelia

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Echo Resources (ASX: EAR) took receipt of results from the first six reverse circulation (RC) drill holes completed within the company’s Orelia gold deposit, located approximately eight kilometres from the Bronzewing Processing Hub in Western Australia.

Echo Resources said the results had raised its confidence levels that Orelia may be an ideal opportunity to quickly increase available Reserves.

Highlights from the results include:

ORC006
31 metres at 10.61 grams per tonne gold from 69m, including 6m at 35.83g/t gold and 5m at 18.12g/t gold;

ORC001
16m at 6.26g/t gold from surface, including 4m at 24.4g/t gold;

ORC004
15m at 2.72g/t gold from 1m and 9m at 2.55g/t gold from 80m; and

ORC002
10m at 2g/t gold from 44m.

Echo said the drilling was continuing and that it expects to receive further results in the coming weeks from both Orelia in the Bronzewing District and a number of prospects in the Empire District located around 70km from the Bronzewing Processing Hub.

“Our current Yandal exploration program is aimed at building our global gold reserve base to underpin the re-start of Echo’s Bronzewing Processing Hub,” Echo Resources CEO Simon Coxhell said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“These high-grade results at Orelia suggest that following further work we will achieve our goal.

“In addition, we know that the Orelia gold deposit forms part of a much larger mineralised system with high-grade south plunging ore bodies down to significant depths which will be tested as a part of future drilling.

“Thanks to a large cut-back of the open pit in 2012-2013 the existing pit is ready for a significant depth extension to approximately 100 metres below the current pit floor.

“This potentially enables access to quality reserves for minimal upfront mine development costs.

“The results from the Bronzewing District follow last week’s early success at the Orpheus gold prospect in the Empire District and continue to support our overall exploration strategy in the Yandal greenstone belt.”

Echo Resources explained that although it has access to existing historic Orelia drill data, the company is taking a back-to-basics approach and building its geological knowledge and interpretation of the deposit from the ground up, using historical data in conjunction with data generated in the current drilling program.

The company has designed the current drilling to independently assess and understand the geology and gold distribution of the deposit, and these first results are in line with expectations returning more high-grade results.

Echo said the results suggest the Orelia gold deposit could provide another high-grade open-pittable resource.

The drilling program results will be entered into an updated resource model, with pit optimisation and project studies to follow.

Email: admin@echoresources.com.au

Website: www.echoresources.com.au