re: gold drilling ann RC Drilling Results From Wombola Dam:June...

re: gold drilling ann
RC Drilling Results From Wombola Dam:
June 2006 Update

Cortona Resources announces very encouraging drilling results from the Wombola Dam Prospect, situated within the North Monger Project approximately 45km SE of Kalgoorlie, which include:

WDC010: 2m @ 16.9g/t Au from 8m
WDC014: 1m @ 18.8g/t Au from 21m & 1m @ 17.9g/t Au from 52m
WDC015: 3m @ 16.4g/t Au from 2m
WDC021: 6m @ 3.38g/t Au from 24m

Results have now been confirmed for 23 of the first 24 holes (WDC0001 to WDC024) of the program. A list of better intersections is tabulated below, and a plan of the drill-hole collars is shown in figure 1. The Wombola Dam prospect lies along strike to the southwest of the Wombola Pit area where recent drilling delineated significant gold mineralisation adjacent to the previously mined area.

The program comprised inclined RC holes (-55°/135°) designed to test both the lateral and vertical extents of the large surface gold anomaly present at Wombola
Dam. Gold is hosted by quartz veins and sheeted quartz veins within a granophyric dolerite, akin to those observed at the Pit. It is particularly pertinent to note that no mine workings (voids) were intersected during the drilling, which confirms that the widespread historical mining rarely went to depths greater than 5m. Furthermore, some of the shallower intersections (ie <5m) indicate that there are several veins that had not been discovered by the miners.

The veining is coincident with a broad zone of alteration defined by pyrite, carbonate and biotite. Occasional albite alteration has been observed immediately adjacent to some veins. Ore sulphides show a spatial zonation, with some veins being dominated by pyrrhotite, others by pyrite-chalcopyrite, whilst pyrite and carbonate are dominant in a third zone.

Three deeper holes (WDC012, 016, and 021) intersected varying thicknesses of sedimentary rock beneath the dolerite. Towards the north, mineralised quartz veining occurs close to the contact, although no mineralisation has yet been recorded within the sedimentary unit. The Company will now review the data in detail, and plan the next phase of drilling with the aim of estimating an initial resource.

During this review period, Cortona will continue its aggressive exploration with a RAB-drilling program designed to test one of the outcrop discoveries identified during last years mapping of the North Monger Project. The newly named ‘Lucia’ prospect is interpreted to lie in the same structural and stratigraphic position as
Perilya Mining’s Daisy Milano mine (~260,000oz resource) which is located just 5km to the south.

A RAB rig is booked to arrive on site in mid-July.

Table 1: Summary of better results from the RC drilling program at Wombola Dam, June 2006.

NB: * denotes 4m composite samples analysed by aqua regia digest method. All other results are 1m samples analysed by Fire Assay. Intersections shown in red contain >15gramme metres of gold.
The results received to date are very encouraging. The Wombola Dam area contains gold mineralisation in the weathered and transitional zones with indications that a significant new oxide resource may be delineated that would greatly add to the existing resource at Wombola Pit.


Yours Faithfully
Peter van der Borgh
Managing Director