Drilling Report

Mercator Gold PLC
29 July 2005








IDENTIFIES SECOND MAJOR GOLD ZONE AND STEPS UP AGGRESSIVE DRILLING PROGRAMME AT
                                  MAID MARION

                          ('Mercator or 'the Company')



LONDON, 29th July 2005  Mercator Gold plc (AIM: MCR) as operator of the Annean
Joint Venture announces interim results from its drilling programme at
Meekatharra North, Western Australia.


Highlights


•  The Maid Marion prospect at Meekatharra North becomes a priority
   target following recent drilling results demonstrating substantial strike and
   down-dip extension of gold mineralization  in reverse circulation drilling.


•  Second major zone of gold anomalism has been identified extending
   over 3.5km of strike length.  The now named Nottingham anomaly was 
   highlighted by the compilation and digitization of uncompiled historic 
   aircore data to the south of Maid Marion.


Meekatharra North


Data compilation, digitization and evaluation of historic aircore, rotary air
blast and reverse circulation drilling has outlined a 3km long geochemical
anomaly in the area of Maid Marion prospect and a further 3.5km long geochemical
anomaly of greater than 0.5g/tAu to the south at the newly named Nottingham
prospect. The anomalous zones in both areas are open to the north and south.
These anomalies are illustrated on the Mercator website with this report.


Mercator's exploration drilling results from Meekatharra North, specifically
Maid Marion prospect, demonstrate consistent gold mineralisation across a series
of exploration drill fences. This initial drill programme was designed to test
potential for a substantial mineralized system in accord with Mercator's aim of
defining prospects with potential to host more than 500,000oz of gold. Step-out
drilling has confirmed excellent potential along strike and down-dip and
possible repeating zones of mineralization west of the main area of drilling.
Mineralisation thus far, has been located in drilling over a strike length of
more than 450m, up to 160m down-dip and greater than 100m vertical depth. Gold
mineralization is associated with quartz veins in ferruginised siliciclastic
sediments, banded iron formation and mafic volcanic rocks. The area as a whole
has a deeply weathered profile to 250m depth.


Reverse Circulation:  RC drilling designed to test down-dip extensions to
previously known mineralization and test aircore anomalies has been successful.
Up to two zones of mineralisation in each hole were intersected, the upper zone
containing true widths to 15m of low grade gold and a lower zone to 5m true
width, down-dip with narrower higher grade mineralisation. Mineralisation
commences from surface. Significant geologically defined intersects include
15m@1.6g/t and 6m@2.2g/t in drillhole 05MMRC006, 9m@1.4g/t in drillhole
05MMRC007, 8m@1.4g/t, 5m@1.35g/t and 10m@1.9g/t in drillhole 05MMRC009, 
11m@1.6g/t in drillhole 05MMRC010, 6m@1.7g/t in drillhole 05MMRC013.


Patrick Harford, CEO of Mercator commented:  'I am delighted to see that a third
prospect has advanced to the stage of being of sufficient merit to justify the
company's view that it could contain at least 500,000 ounces. Inevitably some
projects such as Tuckanarra don't make the cut but Maid Marion with its deeply
weathered profile and consistent mineralization down dip and along strike is
comfortably within trucking distance of Meekatharra. We have high hopes of
profitable ounces from Maid Marion'.


Additional information on the anomalies and five cross-sections of drilling is
available on www.mercatorgold.com.


For further information please contact:

Mercator Gold plc

Patrick Harford, Managing Director                Tel:  [phone]
Terry Strapp, Chairman                            Tel : [phone]
Michael de Villiers, Finance Director             Tel:  [phone]


Beaumont Cornish Limited
Roland Cornish                                    Tel:  [phone]

King & Shaxson Capital Ltd
Nick Bealer                                       Tel:  [phone]

Parkgreen Communications
Justine Howarth / Ana Ribeiro                     Tel:  [phone]



Mercator operates a continuous disclosure policy with respect to exploration
results. Company news releases are based on technical information approved by
Susan Vearncombe (Company Director), BSoc.Sci, MSc(Hons), PhD, RPGeo, MAIG.


Table - Maid Marion Results

SampleID                     mFrom        mTo    Width    Au_g/t     Au_g*m/t     Northing      Easting        RL

05MMRC004:93-94                 93         94        1      1.45         1.45      7071778     658719.1    360.02
05MMRC004:96-97                 96         97        1      1.21         1.21      7071779     658717.7    357.49
05MMRC004:98-99                 98         99        1      1.33         1.33      7071779     658716.7     355.8
05MMRC004:116-117              116        117        1      7.28         7.28      7071784     658708.3    340.59
05MMRC006:12-13                 12         13        1      3.23         3.23      7071784     658665.9    428.84
05MMRC006:28-29                 28         34        6      2.11        12.66      7071788       658658     412.7
05MMRC006:35-36                 35         39        4      1.43         5.72      7071789     658655.4    407.43
05MMRC006:40-41                 40         42        2       2.1          4.2      7071790     658653.8    403.89
05MMRC006:76-77                 76         82        6      2.23        13.38      7071798     658638.5    370.01
05MMRC007:123-124              123        125        2      3.27         6.54      7071722     658607.2    333.31
05MMRC007:130-131              130        131        1      1.01         1.01      7071723     658604.3    327.73
05MMRC007:133-134              133        136        3      3.07         9.21      7071724     658602.4     324.3
05MMRC008:92-93                 92         93        1      1.03         1.03      7071677     658530.6    361.06
05MMRC008:95-96                 95         96        1      1.66         1.66      7071678     658529.1    358.55
05MMRC008:97-98                 97         98        1      1.42         1.42      7071679     658528.2    356.89
05MMRC009:90-91                 90         94        4      2.06         8.24      7071794     658783.5    359.48
05MMRC009:97-98                 97         98        1      1.11         1.11      7071795       658781    354.68
05MMRC009:102-103              102        104        2      2.26         4.52      7071796     658778.6    349.87
05MMRC009:105-106              105        106        1      1.09         1.09      7071796     658777.4    347.69
05MMRC009:110-111              110        118        8      2.21        17.68      7071798     658773.6    340.31
05MMRC009:172-173              172        173        1      3.49         3.49      7071810     658745.3    290.64
05MMRC010:157-158              157        164        7      2.07        14.49      7071757       658725    291.74
05MMRC010:166-167              166        167        1      1.41         1.41      7071760     658723.4    286.43
05MMRC010:172-173              172        173        1      1.51         1.51      7071762       658722     281.1
05MMRC013:39-40                 39         40        1      3.27         3.27      7071691     658004.5    405.08
05MMRC013:56-57                 56         57        1      1.19         1.19      7071696     657996.9    390.44
05MMRC013:63-64                 63         67        4      2.17         8.68      7071698     657993.1    383.11

Notes on tables

•  The drill assay tables is in this press release are based on
   compositing trigger value = 1.0 g/t Au, minimum composite length 0.2m, and
   maximum width of internal waste 2m.

•  Intersection coordinates represent the x-y-z centroid position of the
   composited drill-hole intersection. Location references are given as 'AMG' 
   grid coordinates. Where there are no significant intersections in a hole the 
   collar coordinates are given.

•  Assay method is Genalysis 50g fire assay (FA50/AAS).

•  The surface RL at Meekatharra North near Meekatharra is about 500m
   with moderate variations within the area.

•  NSI = no significant intersection.

Email:    [e-mail]   Web: www.mercatorgold.com

Note to editors


Mercator Gold plc ('AIM-MCR; MCRW'), which joined AIM on 8 October 2004, has a
joint venture agreement with St Barbara Mines Limited ('the Annean Joint 
Venture') to explore for economic gold resources in the Annean Joint Venture 
area in the Meekatharra region of Western Australia.


Under the terms of the Annean Joint Venture, Mercator has the right to earn 70%
interest in the Meekatharra properties by spending AUD$8 million (approx GBP3.1
million) on exploration. Mercator recently announced that it has spent the first
AUD$1 million and has elected to proceed towards the first step of earning 45%
with a minimum expenditure requirement of AUD$2 million before 3rd March 2006.


SpaDiSTM is a software programme developed by Vearncombe & Associates Pty Ltd
that uses fractal technologies, including autocorrelation, to generate
high-grade targets from historic exploration data. Mercator Gold has a
contractual arrangement for the on-going use of SpaDiSTM.


Mercator management has an exploration target of 2,000,000 ounces of gold
contained within four resources, each of at least 500,000 ounces within the
Annean Joint Venture area.


The Company has reported initial high-grade drilling results from the first two
target areas, Bluebird and Surprise.



Projects

•         Yaloginda - This line of workings has been the principal source of
production for St Barbara Mines.  Its 15 km x 2 km area has yielded 18 deposits
in a variety of styles of mineralization, but the open pits do not go below 70m
depth.

Mercator will assess the geology, structure, alteration and gold distribution to
see if a super pit style of operation is realistic, and it will examine
potential for extensions of orebodies in depth.  The target resource is >500,000
oz.

•         Nannine - Oxide deposits were mined by St Barbara with records
indicated that total gold production has exceeded 100,000 oz.  The
mineralization is hosted in basalt, iron formations and granite.  Again, >
500,000 oz deposits are being sought.

•         Kurara East - Gold mineralization is hosted in sulphidic quartz veins,
mainly in altered granite, basalt and dolerite. A 3.5 km long zone of anomalous
gold geochemistry has been identified at Bluebush and Mingah, with aircore
drilling returning some good intercepts.

•         Meekatharra North - Is part of a line of workings with an endowment
(production + resources) of over 2.0 million ounces of gold.  Mercator is
targeting the under-explored northern extension of this alteration zone.








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