Ferrets Stock to Watch: CRESCENT GOLD LTD08:23, Thursday, March...

Ferrets Stock to Watch: CRESCENT GOLD LTD
08:23, Thursday, March 22, 2007

Sydney - Thursday - March 23: (RWE Aust Business News) -
Crescent Gold Ltd (ASX:CRE) has joined the ranks of gold producers with
the pouring of its first gold bar from the Laverton project in Western
Australia.

The mining of ore has commenced at Sickle with first ore
delivered to the ROM pad.

This is in preparation for transition from commissioning on
low-grade stocks to operating on ore.

The company believes Crescent has re-ignited Australia's gold
sector by entering the producer ranks.

With a forecast annual output of 90,000 ounces of gold, the
milestone immediately catapults Crescent into a significant producer.

The initial mine life of five years is expected to be surpassed
as new ore sources are discovered within the Laverton project area,
250 kilometres northeast of Kalgoorlie.

Crescent's managing director, Andrew Haythorpe, said it has been
a historic moment for the company.

"We are starting production at a time when the gold market
continues to become more bullish," he said.

"In the current strong resources environment, it would be easy
to overlook the emergence of and importance of a new Australian gold
producer, particularly one with our anticipated annual throughputs."

The mill expansion to 1.5mtpa has enabled the company to
progressively commission the original 1mtpa mill prior to completion of
the expansion.

The company has been able to further control cash expenditures
by commissioning the plant using low-grade heap leach material prior to
crushing and mining operations scaling up to full production rates.

A mobile crushing plant has been contracted and delivered to
site and is now being commissioned.

This will allow the company to meet its production schedule and
financial commitments while the final components of the mobile crusher
from Malaysia are released and delivered from Quarantine at Fremantle.

Crescent has been advised by Mineral Crushing Services Pty Ltd
(MCS) that it may be feasible to reduce budgeted long-term operating
costs by re-establishing the fixed crusher on site through refurbishment
and improvement.

The company has begun investigating this potential.

Crescent's tenement interests in the Laverton region extend over
more than 1,000 square kilometres.

Its reserves lie close to several well-known gold sites
including Barrick Gold's Wallaby and Anglogold Ashanti's Sunrise Dam
projects.

The Laverton tenements currently contain over 20 targets, of
which Ore Reserve and Ore Estimates are completed on nine - Sickle,
Fish, Euro, Admiral Hill, West Laverton, Mary Mac South, Grouse,
Castaway and Lord Byron.

Sickle was selected as the initial mining source.

In addition, Crescent acquired and recommissioned the Laverton
mill under its strategy to convert from explorer to producer.

The mill is already operating at 70 per cent capacity or 83
tonnes per hour with recovery rates of at least 90 per cent.

The project hosts a compliant Indicated Resource of 20.1 million
tonnes at 1.5 grams per tonne gold (g/t au) for 953,000 ounces of gold
and an Inferred Resource of 10.4 million tonnes at 1.4 g/t au totalling
479,000 ounces of gold.

SHARE PRICE MOVEMENTS
*********************

Shares of Crescent Gold yesterday crept up 1c to 37c. Rolling
high for the year is 52c and low 21.5c. The company has 248.1 million
shares on issue with a market cap of $91.8 million.

On February 21 Crescent Gold reported the commissioning at its
Laverton Gold plant was underway.

In milling: Commissioning on low-grade stockpiles has
commenced; plant operating team on site preparing for full production;
tanks successfully tested. "Wet section" pre commissioning completed;
plant expansion to 1.5mtpa on schedule for completion early April;
delivery of the last of the crusher components from Malaysia underway;
suitable contract crusher identified for use in the interim if required
and mill girth gear repaired and operating satisfactorily with a spare
being purchased.

In mining: preproduction phase complete, ready for mining to
commence; Sickle cleared and topsoil stripped, 100,000 BCMs of broken
stock prepared for mining and mining scheduled to begin as mobile
crusher commissioned.

On Ore Feed: detailed RC Grade Control (GC) drilling at Sickle
completed for the first 25 metres of the Stage 1 pit, it will be the
first ore to the mill after commissioning; results confirm the company's
ore reserve estimates, interpretations and modelling parameters within
acceptable limits; low-grade stockpile will be used for plant
commissioning, reducing cash outflow on crushing and mining during the
process.

In exploration: RC drilling continues along strike high grade at
West Laverton, better results previously reported include 11m @ 45.4
g/t, 10m @ 7.7 g/t and 9m @ 7.0 g/t; assays pending for 15 holes that
have intersected the target over a strike length of 500m.

Mineral resource and ore reserves statement: ore reserves have
increased to 400,000 ounces of gold, work aimed at increasing this
reserve estimate continues; indicated Mineral Resource totals 20.1
million tonnes at 1.5 g/t Au containing 0.95m ozs of gold and an
Inferred Mineral Resource of 10.4 million tonnes at 1.4 g/t Au
containing 0.48m ozs

BACKGROUND
**********

Crescent Gold has grown its 100 per cent owned Laverton Gold
Project from 670,000 ozs to 1.42m ozs resource since 2003.

Its land holdings have quadrupled from approximately 400 square
kilometres to 1,600sqkm.

A feasibility study completed in November 2004 showed that the
project was economic.
Since then, reserves have nearly doubled to 400,000 ozs and the
project economics have improved dramatically with additional reserves
and a better gold price. Resources have also increased another 30 per
cent during 2005.

The company has now gone into production.

Crescent Gold is also exploring in Xinjiang Province of Western
China, an area renowned for some of the world's largest gold and
gold-copper deposits.

Crescent is also exploring for uranium in the Northern Territory
where it holds interest in a number of prospective iron oxide copper
gold (IOCG) and uranium projects.

The company is 8 per cent owned by the directors, who have
personally invested $2 million into Crescent Gold.

ENDS

Copyright © 2007 RWE Australian Business News. All rights reserved.