Gryphon Minerals: Van Eck Associates Corporation's stake increases to 11.03% 

(MENAFN - ProactiveInvestors - Australia) Gryphon Minerals (ASX: GRY) substantial shareholder Van Eck Associates Corporation, a highly-regarded U.S. fund manager, has increased its shareholding in Gryphon to 11.03% from in-kind transactions from GDXJ receiving a basket of securities including Gryphon Minerals.

Highlighting the potential of Gryphon, recent major milestones at its Banfora Gold Project in Burkina Faso include an increase in the gold resource by a stunning 2.5 million ounces " lifting it into a globally significant gold project status and into the mid-tier group of peers in terms of equivalent gold projects.

Banfora, one of the country's largest undeveloped projects, hosts a JORC Resource across four deposits of 56.4 million tonne at 2 grams per tonne (g/t) for 3.6 million ounces of contained gold, with 2.2 million ounces of that in the higher confidence Measured and Indicated categories.

The remainder of the total Resource comes from the additional heap leach potential material at the Nogbele gold deposit, which hosts the extra 49.2 million tonnes at 0.6g/t for 0.93 million ounces of contained gold in the Inferred category.

For 2012 Gryphon has outlined a 30 million budget for exploration, along with a Definitive Feasibility Study to establish a multi-million ounce gold district at Banfora.

A Definitive Feasibility Study is due for completion in the second half of 2012 for an operation delivering over 200,000 ounces of gold per annum.