EAS to Start drilling at Miwah in late May

Vancouver-based mining firm East Asia Minerals Corporation (EAS) reported on Monday that that diamond drilling on its Miwah Gold Project in Aceh Province is planned to commence in late May 2009.

The initial drill program will comprise 10 scissor holes from five collars for a total of 2,000 metres to provide a 3D validation along the full 1,200 metre strike of the Miwah gold-bearing silica zone, exposed along the Miwah ridge, it said.

This program will provide a further indication of the gold resource potential and the framework for follow-up drilling.

?While over 2,000 metres of rock saw channel samples averaging 1.2 g/t gold have been collected by EAS across the entire system, the company is confident that higher overall gold grades can be achieved due to the presence of multiple high grade rock saw channel samples including 4.11 g/t gold over 200 metres at the eastern part of the gold zone, and 4.35 g/t gold over 27 metres at the western part,? it said.

?The drilling program will be supported by helicopter using a man-portable rig. Initial drill results from the program are expected in early July with drilling continuing for approximately three months and beyond with follow-up drilling.?

The Miwah Gold Prospect was partially defined by approximately 3,000 metres of drilling in eleven holes by a previous explorer in 1997. All holes drilled during this program intersected significant alteration and mineralization with intercepts including 71 metres of 1.4 g/t gold and 58 metres of 1.1 g/t gold. The previous explorer suggested potential for 100 Mt at 1.1 to 1.2 g/t gold, however a review of the historical data indicates that early drilling was clearly parallel to higher grade (greater than 5 g/t gold) structures at surface.

East Asia Minerals is an Asian-based, Canadian mineral exploration company with gold and copper exploration properties in Indonesia, and uranium exploration properties in Mongolia. In Indonesia the Company has a 70 to 85% interest in six advanced gold and gold-copper properties located in Aceh Province, Sumatra, and Sangihe Island, North Sulawesi. Two of these, the Sangihe (Binebase-Bawone) and Barisan 1 (Abong) gold projects, are being advanced to define NI43-101 compliant resources. (alex)