East Asia Minerals announces positive results from Sangihe gold project

By Peni Pedriawan

Vancouver-based firm East Asia Minerals announced on Monday additional positive results from its Phase 1 Drilling Program at the company's Sangihe gold and copper project in Sulawesi.

"We are very pleased with these results which are in-line with the resources and grades identified in the NI 43-101 technical report," said Frank Rocca, the Vice President of Exploration at East Asia Minerals in a press statement Monday. "The latest drilling results identified another significant mineralized intercept to the northwest with hole BOD093 which may enable us to extend the current resource."

Further details of the press release are as follows.

The exploration program is comprised of 4,600 metres of drilling. The program is divided between the Binebase mineralization zone extension which consists of 12 holes totaling 1800 meters, the Bawone mineralization zone extension consisting of 12 holes totalling 1800 meters and 10 scout holes at the Kupa and Taware areas, totaling 1000 meters.

The Phase 1 Drilling Program at Bawone resulted in expansion of the Bawone resource to the northwest with drill hole BOD093. This hole contains a significant intercept measuring 20 meters in length from 73.7 meters to 93.7 meters in depth with an average grade of 1.06 grams per ton of gold and 0.43 percent copper. The intercept includes 3 meters in length and from 76.7 meters to 79.7 meters in depth with an average gold and copper grade of 1.59 grams per tonne of gold and over 1 percent copper. This intercept also has 2 meters in length and depth between 80.7 meters to 82.7 meters with an average grade of 2.59 grams per ton of gold and 0.44 percent copper.

The scout hole drilling in the Taware valley has been very successful with 4 of the 10 drill holes intercepting targeted mineralized quartz veins based on assays received. A significant intercept occurred from drill hole TAD006 which intercepted a 0.9 meter wide vein with an average gold grade of 14.6 grams per ton at a depth of 45.25 meters. TAD006 also contains a second significant intercept from a down hole with depth of 101.9 meters measuring 3 meters wide with a gold grade average of 1.38 grams per tonne. Taware drill hole TAD005 contains 2 significant intercepts.

The first at a down hole depth of 53.4 metres with a 0.8 metre-wide breccia zone has a gold and copper grade average of 2.12 grams per ton and 0.12 percent. The second, at a down hole depth of 138.3 meters and 0.6 meters wide has an average grade of 2.09 grams per ton gold and 0.06 percent copper. Taware drill hole TAD004 also contains 2 significant intercepts. The first at a down hole depth of 30.4 meters and 1 meter wide has a gold grade average of 1.92 grams per ton. The second, with a length of 0.8 meters at a down hole depth of 34.4 meters has a gold grade average of 1.12 grams per ton. Drill hole TAD009 contains one significant intercept at a down hole depth of 36 meters with a 0.5 meter-wide breccia zone that has a an average grade of 2.32 grams per ton gold and 0.04 percent copper.

"The results further demonstrate the potential at Sangihe to increase the existing mineral resource," added Ed Rochette, CEO of East Asia Minerals. "The Phase 1 Drilling Program will be complete by April 15, 2013 after which we are moving to drill other prospective areas at Sangihe and will start metallurgical studies to consider processing options."

The second phase of drilling is planned to begin in the second quarter of 2013. Phase 2 will comprise of 10,000 meters. The objective of Phase 2 will be to identify resource extensions and definitions at Binebase, Bawone and Taware. The company will also drill scout holes to test for extensions from Bawone to Salurlang. Further scout holes are planned for the Kuring and Kupa valley prospects. Kuring and Kupa are known to contain high-grade veins and have extensive artisanal mining activity. Trenching samples retrieved by the company from Kupa have been assayed at 30 grams per tonne of gold.

The Sangihe Gold-Copper Project is located on the island of Sangihe off the northern coast of Sulawesi in Indonesia. Sangihe has an existing NI 43-101 compliant inferred mineral resource of 27.3 million tons averaging 0.95 grams per ton of gold and 13.58 grams per ton of silver for 836,718 ounces gold and 11,927,237 ounces silver (using a 0.25 grams per ton gold cut-off).

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak