Etruscan Raises $10,000,000 For Acquisition And Exploration Of Tiawa Property In Niger, West Africa

Business Wire, Jan 19, 1996

DARTMOUTH, Nova Scotia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 19, 1996--Etruscan Enterprises Ltd. (VSE:EET) announced today that it has reached a private placement agreement with Adolf Lundin and Associates of Geneva, Switzerland for aggregate proceeds of $10,000,000 Cdn. to Etruscan.

Etruscan will issue to Lundin 2,500,000 common shares of Etruscan at a price of $4.00 Cdn. per share and 2,500,000 non-transferable share purchase warrants. Each warrant will entitle Lundin to purchase one common share of Etruscan at any time on or before January 16, 1998. The warrants are exercisable at a price of $4.25 Cdn. per common share if exercised prior to January 16, 1997. Thereafter and until expiry, the exercise price is $4.60 Cdn. per common share. The private placement is subject to Lundin being satisfied by February 28, 1996 with the results of due diligence conducted by Lundin.

Approximately $7,000,000 of the subscription proceeds will be used by Etruscan to acquire a 56 percent interest in African GeoMin Mining Development Corporation ("African GeoMin"). African GeoMin is the owner of the Tiawa gold concession located in Niger, West Africa. It is anticipated that the remainder of the subscription proceeds will be made available to African GeoMin for additional development work on the Tiawa property.

The Tiawa Concession covers 1,240 square kilometers of the highly prospective Sirba greenstone belt. It is located 100 kilometers west of the capital of Niamey, and is readily assessable by paved highway and bush road. This concession has the potential to develop a number of substantial gold deposits on the basis of widespread artisanal gold workings, outstanding regional geochemical and geophysical anomalies, and established gold reserves at the Samira deposit.

The Samira deposit was discovered by Klockner Industries during the course of a four year European Development Fund program (1989 to 1994) to evaluate the economic potential of the Liptako District. Klockner has calculated a geological resource of 1,600,000 tonnes at an average grade of 2.59 grams per tonne gold to a vertical depth of 90 meters. The deepest hole intersected 43 meters of 4.30 grams per tonne. The deposit remains open at depth and along strike. An independent report has recommended that the resource can be brought into the "proven" reserve category with 2,000 meters of additional diamond drilling.

The same geochemical program which led to the discovery at Samira has outlined 3 other significant anomalies on the permit in addition to numerous other geochemical targets. The most outstanding target area is at Boulon Djounga where artisanal gold fields cover an area of over 4 square kilometers. During a recent visit to the Boulon Djounga site, artisanal miners were observed operating a primitive gravity recovery plant producing a gold concentrate. A second primary target is situated at Tiawa, where a coincident gold-arsenic anomaly covers an area of 200 x 500 meters at the intersection of two major regional shear zones. The third primary target is Tonde Bobangou. This anomaly is a 7 kilometer long geochemical anomaly coincident with the central portion of a 30 kilometer long east-north-east-trending shear zone which crosses the entire property. The occurrence of disseminated gold at Samira and the widespread occurrence of geochemical anomalies and gold diggings on the property clearly demonstrate the potential for the discovery of large tonnage bulk mineable deposits at Tiawa.

Etruscan Enterprises Ltd. is involved in the acquisitions, exploration and development of mineral properties in North America and West Africa. Etruscan is presently carrying out an extensive drilling program on the Koma Bangou concession in Niger with the objective of completing a mining feasibility study by the third quarter of 1996.

This private placement is subject to approval of the regulatory authorities. -0-

Note to Editors: THE VANCOUVER STOCK EXCHANGE HAS NEITHER APPROVED NOR DISAPPROVED OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS NEWS RELEASE.

CONTACT: Etruscan Enterprises Ltd.

Angus G. MacIsaac, 902/468-9270

William L. Young, 416/867-1100