Olympus cuts ore-grade skarn in Khe Rin area (July 31, 2002)

Vancouver — Olympus Pacific Minerals (OYM-V) has intersected ore-grade gold mineralization while drilling in the central Phuoc Son area

Drill hole KRDH- 023 was drilled into the Khe Do prospect which is situated about 1.4 km south of the previously announced gold-bearing skarn discovery at Khe Rin. The hole was drilled to 150.87 metres and intersected a skarn alteration zone that averaged 7.92 grams gold and 1.51 grams silver per tonne over 9.45 metres, starting at a down-hole depth of 78.42 metres. This included a 1.58-metre interval that assayed 30.71 grams gold and 5.14 grams silver and a 4.17-metre section that averaged 12.72 grams gold and 2.41 grams silver per tonne.

Olympus Pacific reports that the mineralized marble unit lies within a steeply dipping sequence of skarn-altered metamorphic rocks. The gold mineralization is associated with quartz-carbonate veining and irregularly distributed pyrite, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite.

The Khe Do and Khe Rin mineralized zones both occur in metamorphosed volcano-sedimentary rock sequences. The skarn alteration in these rocks appears to be related to a granodioritic intrusive that lies just below the surface. Olympus states that the associated base-metal assay results show a strong relationship between gold and copper values, consistent with high-temperature formation within a near-porphyry environment.

Assay results from a mineralized intersection in an adjacent hole dubbed KRDH-024 are still pending. A drill rig is now being set up to perform step-out drilling from the KRDH-023 and KRDH-024 intersections.

The 100 sq. km Phuoc Son gold project is situated in Central Vietnam, 140 km southwest of the port city of Danang. Phuoc Son is a joint venture held by: Olympus (57.18%), Ivanhoe Mines (32.64%) and Zedex (10.18%). Olympus is the project operator.