A significant high-grade zone of copper and gold mineralization has been discovered at Ivanhoe Mines" Cloncurry copper and gold project in Queensland.

Ivanhoe"s executive chairman Robert Friedland says that continued drilling at the project resulted in the discovery on the western margin of the large, open ended SWAN Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG) Project.

Early this year Ivanhoe announced the discovery of a series of IOCG systems with associated uranium, one of which is the SWAN system, at the company's 2400sqkm Cloncurry Project.

Further exploration of the SWAN system has resulted in a substantial expansion of the deposit's mineralized zone.

A drill hole on the western margin of the system intersected 90 metres grading 2.02% copper and 1.3 grams/tonne gold from 582 metres, including 54 metres grading approximately 3.04% copper and 1.89 grams/tonne gold.

It is the first high-grade copper and gold zone intercepted at SWAN and the zone remains open in all directions. The tenor and thickness of the high-grade mineralization appears to be superior to that previously mined at the Mt Elliott Mine, about 1km away.

Ivanhoe is undertaking an aggressive drilling campaign to explore the immediate area around the high-grade zone to expand the size and to better understand the structural controls of the mineralization.

The SWAN-Mt. Elliott IOCG system is the first of numerous targets to be intensively drill tested by Ivanhoe in the Cloncurry district. Delineation drilling has just begun at Mt. Dore and Amethyst Castle, the second and third targets to be drill tested in the district.