NEVADA & THE WESTERN STATES — Vengold explores in Walker Lane Trend

Vancouver-based Vengold (VEN-T) is exploring for the yellow metal on its newly acquired Pamlico property, southeast of Hawthorne in Nevada’s Walker Lane region.

To date, the company has completed mapping and sampling of underground workings (to be incorporated into a three-dimensional model) as well as drilling.

Walker Lane is a structural weakness in crustal North America, running from Las Vegas northwest beyond Reno. It is also related to crustal extension in the Great Basin and strike-slip faulting at the plate margin of the continent.

Vengold has picked up five additional properties following a regional survey of the Great Basin, though Pamlico remains the most advanced.

In the first quarter, Vengold incurred a loss of US$16.8 million (12 cents per share), compared with a loss of US$1.9 million (2 cents per share) in the corresponding period of 1998. Its cash position at the end of the first quarter of 1999 was US$20.1 million, of which US$9.9 million is readily available. The remainder represents Vengold’s pro rata share of cash held by Lihir Gold (LIHRY-Q), in which it has a 15.8% interest.

At the annual meeting, shareholders voted in favour of rolling back the number of shares on the basis of one new share for 10 old shares. The name of the company is also expected to change, to Lions Gold.