Republic Gold Limited Stock Market Press Releases and Company Profile

Brisbane, Jan 17, 2008 AEST (ABN Newswire) - The Board of Republic Gold ("Republic" or the "Company")(ASX: RAU) today announces that it has received all of the analysis results from the recent drilling programme at the Whumbal West tungsten prospect in Far North Queensland that took place in November. The drilling has been highly successful in encountering tungsten mineralisation in all but 2 drillholes. Planning for a Stage 2 drilling programme at Whumbal West will commence immediately.

Managing Director of Republic Gold, Mr John Kelly said "These highly encouraging drilling results from Whumbal West represent an exciting time for shareholders and the Company. Our exploration team has taken an idea, a handful of isolated analysis results from samples taken decades ago and initially turned these into a large and robust tungsten anomaly. Now the analysis results from the very first holes drilled into the anomaly have demonstrated the Whumbal West anomaly to be real with enormous potential.

Thirteen of the intersections are at or above a reasonable cut-off grade that could be used to calculate an open pittable resource, but the existing drilling and geological information is far too sparse for any resource calculation to be considered yet. We know that this region of the Hodgkinson Basin is rich in tungsten and will push on with further drilling at Whumbal West when the wet season allows and also explore the other tungsten anomalies known to exist on the Company's ground."

The tungsten results confirm mineralisation in the core of the geochemical anomaly defined in mid-2007, with the drilling leaving the mineralisation open to both the north and south. The previously defined surface geochemistry anomaly encountered tungsten values over a strike length of 3,500 metres. This Stage 1 drilling programme has concentrated on the 1,300 metres long central core of the anomaly, with drilling on two drill sections covering 300 metres across the strike of the mineralisation. This drilling demonstrates the potential for a large scale body of tungsten mineralisation at Whumbal West.

Whumbal West is located in a region of the Hodgkinson Basin rich in tungsten. It is 50 kilometres to the north-west of the large, historic Mt Carbine tungsten mine that the Company is looking to purchase and 21 kilometres to the west-north-west of the large Watershed tungsten deposit owned by Vital Metals Limited. The Whumbal West Prospect occurs in a highly favourable geological setting. It is situated in a major shear zone that is coincident with a regional syncline. Geologically, Whumbal West Prospect is located in a sheared syncline and has similarities to both the Mt Carbine and Watershed deposits. The drilling has shown a series of multiple laminated quartz-tungsten zones in some drillholes akin to the Mt Carbine deposit. The rock types are dominated by shales and sandstones, with the scheelite mineralisation seeming to occur on the contact between these two rock types. The degree of metamorphism is a lower grade than Mt Carbine but it is similar to that of Watershed. There was no visible wolframite logged.

A total of 1,456 metres in 15 holes, comprising 950 metres of RC and 506 metres of diamond drilling was completed in the programme. One of these holes was drilled as a water bore and a second was terminated at 9 metres depth. Drilling intersections quoted are all downhole widths, which in general are targeted to intersect postulated mineralised zones at angles of greater than 30*, i.e. approaching perpendicular as far as practicable.

A Stage 2 drilling programme is now to be designed that will see the anomaly tested further along strike to the north and south with some infill of the Stage 1 drilling.

The Whumbal West exploration licence, EPM 14737, is 100% owned by Republic. Mt Carbine Purchase Option Update Work continues on the purchase of the Mt Carbine Project. A valuation report on one of the assets available for sale has been commissioned by the Company and is anticipated soon. The 2007 accounts for the Nicholson Group of Companies were prepared in late 2007 at the request of the Company. These were received last week and are being reviewed by the Company's accountants.

Further Drilling Results

Further drilling analysis results for the Northcote and Tregoora Gold Projects in Far North Queensland and the Burraga Polymetallic Project in NSW are either being examined by the Company's geologists or are expected from the laboratory imminently.

Chinese Interest

A technical report on one of the Company's projects was translated into Chinese in December and despatched to China in late December. The Company's Chinese contact has indicated that a follow-up visit will occur shortly, with this delegation expected to include further senior personnel along with the initial delegation participants.

Contact

Greg Barns
TEL: +61-419-691-846

John Kelly
TEL: +61-418-577-759


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