TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Aug. 6, 2013) - Eastmain Resources Inc. (News - Market indicators) announced that a 25,000-metre drill program is underway at its Clearwater Project located in James Bay, Québec. Our primary objective this year at Clearwater is to expand and upgrade gold resources at the Eau Claire deposit through optimization of near-surface exploration, based on the results of an internal scoping review completed earlier this year by P&E Mining Consultants. Drilling and trenching will focus on adding high-grade potentially open pittable and underground resources to the Eau Claire gold deposit. Concurrently, a block model resource update (in progress), which includes all drilling to the end of 2012, will be completed.
With 2013 exploration funding provided by flow-through placements completed in 2012, the Company has a $7.5-million exploration budget for key James Bay, Québec area properties. In order to meet flow-through requirements, eligible expenditures must be incurred by Dec 31, 2013.
Exploration crews, previously evacuated from the Clearwater Project to the Eastmain Mine property, due to severe forest fires in the region, have now fully returned to Clearwater, where trenching and drilling are progressing well. 2013 exploration budgets provide for work programs at the Company's 100% owned Eastmain Mine, Reservoir, Lac Hudson and Lac Elmer Projects. A small exploration program has also been recommended for the Éléonore South Joint Venture.
Clearwater Project
A $5M-program, including 25,000 metres of definition drilling, will focus on expanding the lateral and vertical limits of the Eau Claire gold deposit. The deposit currently extends for two kilometres laterally and 900 metres vertically. Over 100 gold-bearing intersections, defined during 2012 drilling, which exceed current resource cut-off parameters and occur within the upper 350 metres of the deposit, will be added to the resource update. The updated resource is expected to be completed by P&E Mining Consultants by October.
Trenching completed in 2012, within both the 450 and 850 West Zones, has also exposed additional gold-bearing veins exceeding resource cut-off parameters. Several trenches designed to test the surface expansion of the Eau Claire footprint in all directions will be completed during the 2013 program.
Prospecting, trenching and exploration drilling are also planned to test new discoveries up to 3 km east of Eau Claire, along the key deposit horizon, where numerous gold-bearing rock and soil anomalies have been detected. In the vicinity of Snake Lake there is considerable potential to outline additional gold resources along this corridor.
Eastmain Mine Project
In July while awaiting remobilization to Clearwater, field crews completed a program of geological mapping, prospecting and soil geochemical surveys, to define future drill targets in the key mine horizon northwest of the Eastmain Mine gold deposit. A number of drill targets below the A and B Zones and along the mine trend lateral to the deposit will be tested as part of a winter 2014 drill campaign.
The Eastmain Mine property is now accessible by permanent road via Route 167 North. Although top-dressed only to approximately Km 128, the road is now passable to where it meets the Eastmain Mine internal road network, thereby sharply reducing fuel and equipment transportation costs.
Reservoir Project
Exploration is planned for our 100%-owned Reservoir Project, where previous work defined a large copper-gold system extending for approximately two kilometres in the central part of the property. Historical drilling in this area, known as the C-52 Zone, intersected wide zones of copper and gold mineralization (0.57 g/t Au over 21.0 metres in hole 87-11). Locally within C-52, higher grade intervals of up to 5.35 g/t Au, 1.15 g/t Ag and 0.17% Cu over 6.0 metres, and 2.04 g/t Au, 9.52 g/t Ag, and 0.14% Cu over 1.4 metres occur. Near-surface gold intersections of 0.25 to 1.93 g/t across widths of 5.0 to 30.0 metres often contain higher-grade drill intervals of up to 11.5 g/t across 1.5 metres.
Rock samples (grab and channel) taken in 2012, which returned assays ranging from 0.5 to 5.5 g/t Au, 5.0 to 58.3 g/t Ag and 0.5 to 9.58% Cu, indicate that there are four main target areas requiring additional ground follow-up prior to drilling. An $800,000 work program consisting of prospecting, geochemical sampling and preliminary diamond drilling has been allocated for 2013.
Other Projects
High-definition airborne geophysical surveys covering previously defined mineralized trends over the Company's Lac Elmer and Lac Hudson Projects, also located in the James Bay region, are nearing completion.
Lac Elmer hosts a 10-km-long sericite-pyrite altered rhyolite enriched in gold and base metals. Grades of up to 102 g/t gold and 1,000 g/t silver were reported from previous work. This Bousquet-Mine type prospect covers a number of targets ranging from wide-low grade zones returning values of 0.50 g/t gold and 45.0 g/t silver over 30 metres (drill hole W85-21) to high-grade samples grading up to 102 g/t gold (grab sample) and up to 1-3% copper-zinc (drill, channel and grab).
Lac Hudson is prospective for gold and base metal deposits within a very similar setting to that hosting Goldcorp's Roberto deposit at Éléonore. In addition, gold targets in iron formation, have also returned assays of up to 15.1 g/t gold at Lac Hudson.
A jointly-funded exploration program has been recommended for the Éléonore South Project, located adjacent to Goldcorp's multi-million-ounce Roberto gold deposit (Éléonore project) in the James Bay region of Québec, and is subject to approval by our partners, Goldcorp and Azimut Exploration Inc.
"Our 2013-2014 objectives are to demonstrate that there are sufficient high-grade gold resources at Clearwater to support a stand-alone, highly-profitable, long-life mining operation. The most important value-driver for the project is the high-grade nature of the Eau Claire gold deposit. Combined with simple, clean metallurgy and close proximity to power and roads, the exceptional grades at Eau Claire make Clearwater an excellent project for future mining. In addition, there is substantial exploration upside to add resources both within the Eau Claire deposit and elsewhere on this 200 km2 property", says Eastmain's President and CEO.
"The bulk of our 2013 exploration budget will be allocated to advancing Clearwater towards future production while the remainder of funds will define targets for drilling and maintaining highly-prospective key projects, some of which will provide joint venture opportunities", adds Robinson.
Dr. Donald J. Robinson P. Geo, President and Chief Executive Officer of Eastmain, Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 reviewed and approved the technical data presented in this press release.
About Eastmain Resources Inc. (News - Market indicators)
Eastmain is a Canadian gold exploration company with 100% interest in the Eau Claire and Eastmain gold deposits. The Corporation holds a pipeline of exploration projects within the James Bay District, including an interest in the Éléonore South joint venture property, and has allocated $7.5 million for 2013 Québec exploration. The Corporation has sufficient working capital to continue its exploration programs for the foreseeable future.
Forward Looking Statements - Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of Eastmain, including, but not limited to the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, dependence upon regulatory approvals and the availability of financing. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements.
