Gold Fields doubles Radius stake (August 11, 2003)

Vancouver — South African-based Gold Fields (GFI-N) now holds a 12.9% stake in junior Radius Explorations (RDU-V).

The major, which currently lays claim to 3.6 million shares of the Simon Ridgway-led company, acquired the additional 1.9 million shares of Radius by exercising warrants. The transaction put another $2.8 million into Radius’s coffers, boosting the overall treasury to around $4.6 million.

Gold Fields picked up the warrants as part of a financing deal back in 2001, when the company bought 1.9 million units of Radius priced at $1.05 each. A full unit held one share and one warrant exercisable at $1.25. At the time, the deal gave Gold Fields a 12.5% interest in Radius, but subsequent financings by the junior over the past two years diluted the major’s stake.

Later that same year, Gold Fields inked a deal with Radius, paving the way for the major to earn a 55% interest in the Tambor property in eastern Guatemala by spending US$5 million over three and a half years. So far, Gold Fields has spent more than $3 million.

The major is currently active at the Guapinol South zone, where drilling has tested a mineralized structure over a 350-metre strike length and down to a vertical depth of 200 metres. Also, Gold Fields has tabled results from 10 reverse-circulation holes drilled into the adjoining Pozo del Coyote prospect. Hole 8 produced the best results: 9.1 metres grading 21.9 grams gold per tonne (included in this section was a bonanza grade intercept of 81.9 grams gold over 2.3 metres).

Gold mineralization at Guapinol and Pozo de Coyote lies in, and is adjacent to, quartz veins localized in an east-west-trending, steeply dipping zone of mylonitized phyllites.

Additional drill results from the ongoing program are being compiled.

Meanwhile, at the Marimba project, in southeastern Guatemala, Radius and partner Pillar Resources (PRI-V) have tabled favourable metallurgical test results from the silicified breccia horizon at the Cerro T prospect. Bottle-roll tests on 100-gram composite drill core samples from four mineralized intercepts indicate a gold recovery of greater than 95%.

A second bout of drilling will attempt to establish a near-surface, heap-leachable gold resource in the area tested in the first phase and to expand the known strike length of the mineralized blanket.

Pillar can earn a 60% stake in the project by paying Radius US$30,000 and spending $2.5 million over three years. Pillar can then buy the remaining 40% in consideration for a 40% equity interest in Pillar.

Gold Fields retains the first right of refusal on the Marimba project should Pillar vend the property to a third party.