Romarco Acquires Claims in Battle Mountain - Eureka (Cortez) Gold Trend, Nevada

ROMARCO MINERALS INC. ("TSXV: R" - the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has signed a binding Letter of Intent with Scoonover Exploration LLC ("Scoonover") to enter into a lease for a 100% operating interest on 110 lode mining claims located along the Battle Mountain-Eureka Gold Trend in the Roberts Mountains of Eureka County, Nevada. Situated approximately 30 miles southeast of the recent discovery by Placer Dome at Cortez Hills, and intimately within the area where over 1 million ounces of gold was outlined by Atlas Precious Metals in the Gold Bar Mine area during the 1980's, the property gives Romarco a strategic foothold in this extremely prospective exploration area. Geological characteristics evident in the project area indicate the significant discovery potential for "Carlin Type" gold deposits analogous to the Cortez Hills, or Rain, and other higher grade gold deposits.

The agreement will allow Romarco to control a 100% operating interest in the claim groups subject to yearly payments and a production royalty to the underlying owner.

Recent outstanding success by Placer Dome in discovering new gold deposits hosted in upper Devonian rocks in the Cortez area indicates the very high probability of continued discovery along the trend. Additionally, the recent Placer Dome discoveries emphasizes that the application of new geologic concepts is leading to the discovery of deposits that have higher grades and more contained ounces than were historically discovered and mined. The close spaced drilling which discovered Cortez Hills (7.5 million ounces gold) between the Pediment deposit and the original Cortez pit (mined from the 1950's to the 1970's) demonstrates the focused exploration that is necessary to discover deposits in known, producing districts such as this.

Claim Geology and Potential

One of the claim blocks acquired covers the down dip extension of the upper Devonian Nevada group limestone units that hosted ore in the Gold Stone pit, which yielded approximately 80,000 ounces of gold. These rocks have been the most productive units in the Roberts Mountain deposits discovered by Atlas, and are also the host in the Cortez/Cortez Hills areas. Additionally, at Gold Stone, Atlas reportedly went underground from the open pit to mine/explore a NE trending structure containing up to 1 oz/ton gold that projects onto Romarco's claim block. The favorable ore host units are cut by a series of mappable northwest trending faults within the Battle Mountain-Eureka trend. Historic exploration is limited to shallow drilling (<800 feet) in 17 holes. Significant widths (10's of meters) of 10's and 100's of ppb gold were encountered in some of these holes. No exploration drill holes ever targeted the prominent fault zones where they cut the favorable host units.

The other claim block is located between the Gold Bar mine (300,000 ounces @ 0.1 oz Au/ton) and the Gold Ridge deposit (approximately 96,000 ounces produced). A very strong, northeast-trending set of faults cuts the Battle Mountain-Eureka trend in this part of the district and localized the economic deposits. These claims cover a portion of this structural corridor where extensive soil sampling by prior companies defined some very prominent 50 to 250 ppb gold anomalies within larger envelopes of 10 to 50 ppb gold. These anomalous gold zones correlate very well with the structural corridor, have coincident trace element (arsenic, antimony, and mercury) anomalies, and have never been drilled.

Romarco believes that these two claim blocks exhibit very good discovery potential for a world-class gold deposit discovery analogous to those being found in the Cortez/Cortez Hills of the Battle Mountain-Eureka Gold Trend and the Rain area of the Carlin Gold Trend. Quality, tangible exploration targets exist in both areas. Neither area is a "pediment play" where the potential is concealed by post-mineral cover that makes targeting much more difficult.

Terms of the Agreement

The mining lease with Scoonover includes an initial payment on signing of US$25,000 escalating by $5,000 per annum to a maximum of $50,000; all BLM and County payments required to keep the property in good standing; and a 3% NSR to Scoonover which may be repurchased by Romarco for $1,000,000 per percentage point. Romarco may terminate the lease agreement any time by providing written notice to Scoonover.

For further information, please contact Diane Garrett, President and C.E.O. at (830) 634-7489 or by e-mail at dgarrett@romarco.com or Mr. Ralf Langner, V.P. Finance at (604) 688-9271 or by e-mail at rlangner@romarco.com  

ON BEHALF OF ROMARCO MINERALS INC.

Diane R. Garrett
President and C.E.O.