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Glass Earth Buys HPD Gold Interests and is Granted Six Exploration Permits
26 January 2006 - Glass Earth acquires HPD New Zealand's extensive gold interests and is granted six new exploration permits in central North Island.
Wellington-based gold exploration company Glass Earth Ltd, has bought out the extensive exploration interests of London-based HPD New Zealand and has also been granted six new exploration permits in the Taupo-Coromandel volcanic zone.
The Toronto-listed Glass Earth said it has reached agreement to acquire HPD from Patagonia Gold plc, making Glass Earth one of the largest New Zealand gold exploration companies.
HPD has a total of 22 exploration and prospecting permits covering over 4724 sq km in the North and South Islands of New Zealand.
Glass Earth said HPD’s North Island exploration and prospecting permits are contiguous and adjacent to Glass Earth’s existing property interests and contain numerous epithermal gold targets with a Waihi “Martha Mine” style of mineralisation. This type of mineralisation has been identified by Glass Earth as part of its own prospecting activities over the last two years.
Glass Earth said the North Island HPD permits were a strategically important fit with its own properties. The South Island permits were generally for mesothermal gold targets, which exhibit “Macraes deposit” type signatures.
The exploration director of HPD New Zealand, Marc Sale, will join the board of Glass Earth and will be part of the New Zealand-based exploration team.
Of the six new exploration permits issued to Glass Earth, five are within prospecting permit PP 39241 on the volcanic plateau where the company flew the largest and most detailed aeromagnetic and airborne gravity surveys ever to be carried out in New Zealand.
Interpretation of its recent airborne magnetic and gravity surveys has identified 21 priority drill targets in the epithermal gold region of the Taupo-Rotorua area. The geophysical surveys have enabled the company to “see through” the layers of volcanic ash, as much as tens of metres thick, to the underlying rocks.
Glass Earth said the new exploration permits will form the basis of a drill programme scheduled to start in April 2006.
Four of the new exploration permits are between Rotorua and Taupo. They are the 3042 hectare EP 40765, the 12,030 hectare EP 40766, the 3767 hectare EP 40769, and the 6225 hectare EP 40770.
Glass Earth has a new permit south of Te Puke, the 1563 hectare EP 40768, plus another smaller permit at Waihi, EP 40767, which contains 250 hectares.
