29 August 2006

Eastern Mediterranean Resources Public Limited ("EMED") announces the commencement of drilling at the Stiavnica-Hodrusa and Detva licence areas in central Slovakia.

Drilling is planned at three of EMED's prospects, the following near-surface targets:

Ø       At Banska Bela, testing a gold anomaly immediately north of two previously mined high-grade gold veins separated by near-surface stockwork gold mineralisation;

Ø       At Klokoc Vyhne, following up high-grade gold assays in a magnetite skarn; and

Ø       At Biely Vrh, testing a soil gold anomaly coincident with a major northeast magnetic lineament.

EMED's exploration has defined quality drill targets by:

Ø       Geological mapping;

Ø       Re-logging and sampling of archived drill core;

Ø       Low-detection soil geochemical sampling; and

Ø       Interpretation for structure and alteration patterns in airborne and ground geophysical data.

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams, EMED's Managing Director said:

"Exploration continues to demonstrate the prospectivity of our licence areas in central Slovakia for a range of gold, silver and copper mineralisation styles. Furthermore, our consultation with the relevant communities and regulatory authorities indicates support for our efforts to re-establish metal production in these areas.

In cooperation with the Slovak National geological bureaus, we have developed a large geological database and, having systematically evaluated a number of prospects in the field, EMED has now progressed to the initial drilling of three of those targets.

The availability of extensive historical data and archived drill core in this major mining district has enabled EMED to progress rapidly to the selection of quality targets. We are optimistic that this drilling will provide us with at least one prospect we can progress to the evaluation stage."

Stiavnica-Hodrusa Licence Area

EMED's licence covers an area of 106km² in the central zone of a large, andesitic stratovolcano of Neogene age, within a caldera about 20 km in diameter. The Company's initial focus is on shallow targets prospective for epithermal and porphyry-style gold, silver and copper mineralisation in this major precious metals district. It is important to also highlight that EMED will in due course also move on to progressing the Hodrusa-Deeps Project to examine further the continuation at depth of the mineralized structures that in ancient times yielded over 120 million ounces of silver and 2.5 million ounces of gold down to the valley floors. EMED has established that some of the systems are open at depth.

Highlighted in this announcement are details of the immediate shallow drilling targets:

The Banska Bela prospect in the eastern part of the Stiavnica-Hodrusa licence area was mined for gold and silver from medieval times until the 1940's. Underground workings are concentrated on two north-northeast trending veins over a strike length of 2-3km. Gold production from these 1-9m wide veins is not known, but head grades of 5-10g/t gold were recorded in the 1900's according to the Mining Archive in Banska Stiavnica. Ore shoots on these epithermal veins commonly assayed 10g/t gold and up to 29g/t gold.

During the 1990's, a Canadian company intersected stockwork mineralisation in six inclined diamond drillholes and reported the results tabulated below.

This stockwork mineralisation is located between the two historically mined veins and the drillholes are on three sections approximately 150m apart.

EMED's field work at Banska Bela has concentrated on the mineralized zones around and between northern extensions of these veins. EMED has mapped the geology and sampled numerous historic shallow open-pit workings, focusing on a 600m long silicified and brecciated zone in rhyolite. EMED's sampling has confirmed gold-silver mineralisation in several parallel structures of breccias and sheeted veins that define a 20-30m wide mineralised zone around each structure.

Drilling will test the potential for a significant near-surface low-grade, large tonnage gold resource in this northern area. Six inclined diamond drill holes are initially planned to a depth of 80-100m on three sections approximately 100m apart.

At the Klokoc Vyhne prospect in the northwestern part of the Stiavnica-Hodrusa licence area, drilling by the Slovakian State was undertaken in the 1940-50's. Vertical drillholes tested a magnetite skarn on a wide spaced grid over a 1km x 1km area but drill core was not assayed for gold at the time. Local geologists carried out resampling of drill core in the early 1990's and an interval from 191m depth returned 35m at 6.3g/t gold.

EMED has relogged the archived core from more than 50 of these diamond drillholes. Preliminary assay results support the high grade gold results in V143 and structural logging suggests that the gold mineralisation is due to a late sub-vertical shear zone superimposed on the skarn host rocks.

EMED plans to test this shear zone at the Klokoc Vyhne prospect initially with one inclined (45°) diamond hole to 260m depth. The interpreted true width of the shear zone is 6-8m wide and may represent the northern extension of the previously mined "Three Kings Vein", which extends 3-4 km to the south of Klokoc Vyhne.

Detva Licence Area

The Detva licence area is located in central Slovakia, about 25km to the east of the Stiavnica-Hodrusa district. The geology consists of a caldera-graben complex in the centre of a large stratovolcano. Widespread propylitic and localised advanced argillic alteration in the licence area indicate substantial hydrothermal activity. This geological setting is considered analogous to the Stiavnica-Hodrusa mineral field and is considered to be a classic geological setting for the formation of large porphyry and epithermal gold orebodies.

At the Biely Vrh prospect in the northeastern part of the Detva licence, assay results from EMED's soil sampling have defined a north-northeast trending gold anomaly with a strike of 400m and width of 200m, remaining open to the south.

A series of historic shallow workings are aligned in a north-northeast direction at the western edge of the soil anomaly. Float samples (assaying up to 2g/t gold) of silicified and argillic-altered andesite, vuggy silica and quartz veins were collected over the prospect area and indicate an epithermal style of gold mineralisation.

The soil anomaly is coincident with a major northeast lineament on air magnetics and a large, circular magnetic low lies 500-1000m to the southwest. Assay results are awaited from soil samples collected over this magnetic low.

Two diamond drill holes to 100m depth spaced approximately 250m apart are planned to test the gold anomaly at Biely Vrh.

-Ends-

Enquiries

References in this announcement to exploration results and potential have been approved for release by Mr Ron Cunneen, B.Sc. (Honours). Mr Cunneen is Head of Exploration for Eastern Mediterranean Resources and has more than 20 years relevant experience in the field of activity concerned. He is a member of The Australian Institute of Geoscientists ("AIG") and has consented to the inclusion of the material in the form and context in which it appears.

Notes to editors

Stiavnica-Hodrusa

Stiavnica-Hodrusa is located in central Slovakia and EMED's licence area covers a substantial portion of this world-class mineral district in Slovakia. Underground mines in this district have historically yielded an estimated total of 2.4 million ounces of gold, 120 million ounces of silver, 70,000 tonnes of zinc, 55,000 tonnes of lead and 8,000 tonnes of copper.

About Eastern Mediterranean Resources Public Limited

EMED listed on AIM in May 2005 following an initial public offering of its shares. The Company is headquartered in Cyprus and has a strong commitment to the region.

The Group's region of interest is the Mesozoic to Tertiary age tectonic belt that winds over 3,000km from Eastern Europe to Iran. The strategy is to rapidly evaluate exploration opportunities in several jurisdictions throughout this quality mineral belt with a high rate of project turnover.

EMED has now established a strong position in the following three areas within its area of interest:

         Cyprus/Middle East exploration is centred on the Troodos ophiolite complex. The targeted mineralisation style is volcanic-hosted massive sulphide copper deposits under shallow cover, similar to the larger Cyprus copper mines - three of which exceeded 10 million tonnes of ore, at grades between 1% and 4.5%. EMED is undertaking a pre-feasibility study on mining copper-zinc resources in the Klirou District.

         Eastern Europe exploration areas are centred on a cluster of volcanic centres in Slovakia. Low-detection geochemical methods are being applied to these areas for the first time together with open pit bulk mining concepts. The targeted shallow mineralisation styles are high-grade epithermal gold, or bulk-mineable epithermal gold and porphyry copper-gold.

         Caucasus exploration areas and options over additional prospects, form a cluster of gold prospects centred in Georgia. EMED's main prospects are within the Upper Racha Licence with reserves and resources (Russian classification) of 2.4 million ounces of gold. A field program is in progress and a progress report will issue within the next few weeks, as results are assembled and interpreted.

For further information on the Company's activities, visit www.emed-mining.com or www.emed.tv

Download the full announcement "Drilling Commences in Slovakia" (50KB pdf).