Entr�e Budgets $7
Million for 2008 Exploration
Vancouver, B.C., May 5, 2008
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Entr�e Gold Inc. (TSX:ETG; AMEX:EGI; Frankfurt:EKA
– “Entr�e” or the “Company”) plans to spend
approximately $7 million on exploration activities on its projects in the United States, China
and Mongolia
this year.
“Many public
junior resource companies have faced considerable market pressure in the last
several months. In contrast, the prices of commodities such as gold and
copper have been sustained at near market highs. Entree is committed to
advancing our exploration projects as we believe that the long term
fundamentals supporting these commodity prices remain intact,” noted
Entr�e’s President and CEO, Greg Crowe.
Work has begun on a
large land position in Arizona and New Mexico, where the Company is seeking buried porphyry
targets in the most prolific copper producing district in North
America. Entr�e has recently formed a Wholly Foreign Owned
Enterprise (“WFOE”) in China and has commenced a mapping
program on the Huaixi project. Exploration in Mongolia is planned to commence this spring,
once the weather improves in the south Gobi
desert.
Arizona and New Mexico
Over the last
several months, Entree has assembled a portfolio of promising early-stage
projects in Arizona and New Mexico. Through its agreements
with Empirical Discovery LLC, Entr�e has acquired exploration rights to over
24,600 acres (9,995 hectares) located southeast of Safford,
Arizona and extending into New Mexico. An additional 10,800 acres
(4,370 hectares) has been acquired near Bisbee,
Arizona.
Six targets have
been identified to date: Duncan, Ash Peak,
Dixie and Abbot in Arizona, and Gold Hill and
Lordsburg in New Mexico
(see map at www.entreegold.com). Geophysical surveying has commenced on Duncan and Gold
Hill. Work on the other projects is being scheduled as exploration and
environmental permits are approved.
Approximately $2
million has been budgeted for work in Arizona,
exclusive of drilling. The current geophysics program includes 95 line kilometres of deep-penetrating induced polarization/resistivity, CSAMT, AMT and Vector IP. Once drill targets
have been identified, further funds are expected to be allocated for testing
these targets.
China
Entr�e has recently
been advised that its application to form a WFOE in China has been approved. The
formation of a WFOE allows Entr�e to operate as a 100% owned legal entity in China
and conduct exploration activities.
A budget of
$750,000 has been allocated to fund a preliminary prospecting and mapping
program on the Huaixi project and to set up
administrative offices in Beijing and Wenzhou.
As the season progresses and targets are evaluated, additional funds may be
designated for drilling.
Mongolia
A preliminary
budget of $2.5 million has been approved for further work on Entr�e’s
Lookout Hill property that lies outside of the Entr�e-Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.
agreement area (see map on www.entreegold.com). . Pending favourable results, an additional $1.3 million may be made
available for drilling.
In-fill drilling is
currently underway at the Heruga deposit, located
within Entr�e’s Javhlant concession that forms
part of the Entr�e-Ivanhoe Mines agreement area. Ivanhoe Mines is
Entr�e’s partner and project operator for this work. An inferred
resource estimate for the Heruga deposit of 760
million tonnes grading 0.48% copper, 0.55 g/t gold
and 142 ppm molybdenum for a copper equivalent grade
of 0.91%, using a 0.60% copper equivalent cut-off grade was recently announced
(see news release dated March 12, 2008).
The Mongolian
Parliament continues to debate potential changes to the Minerals Law.
Quality Assurance
and Quality Control
Robert Cann, P.Geo., Entr�e’s
Vice-President, Exploration, a qualified person as defined by National Instrument
43-101 (“NI 43-101”), supervised the preparation of the information
in this release.
ABOUT ENTR�E GOLD
INC.
Entr�e Gold Inc. is
a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on the worldwide exploration and
development of gold and copper prospects. Most notably, the Company is a large
landholder in Mongolia,
where it holds three exploration licences that
comprise the 179,590-hectare Lookout Hill property. Lookout Hill
completely surrounds the 8,500-hectare Oyu Tolgoi project of Ivanhoe Mines, and hosts the Hugo North
Extension of the Hugo Dummett deposit and the newly
discovered Heruga deposit.
The Company
continues to explore its large landholdings in Mongolia
as well as evaluating new opportunities throughout the region and elsewhere in Asia. Entr�e plans to explore the Huaixi copper project in Zhejiang Province
in China,
under the terms of an agreement with the No. 11 Geological Brigade. In
North America, the Company is exploring for copper-molybdenum porphyry systems
in the southwest USA.
The Company is also seeking additional opportunities to utilize its expertise
in exploring for deep and/or concealed ore deposits.
Ivanhoe Mines and
Rio Tinto are major shareholders of Entr�e, holding
approximately 15% and 16% of issued and outstanding shares respectively.
FURTHER INFORMATION
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.