At the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference, Dr. Donald Robinson, President and CEO, discussed Eastmain Resources plans for 2011.
Eastmain Resources (ER: TSX) is a Canadian-based exploration company led by President and CEO Dr. Donald Robinson. With a focus on gold and base metal deposits in Eastern Canada, Eastmain is positioned for extensive exploration during 2011.
KEY ASSETS
According to Dr. Donald Robinson, President and CEO of Eastmain, there are lots of good things happening for Eastmain Resources, “What's new and exciting is that we have an approved budget for 2011 of $9.3 million dollars in exploration, which includes 46,000 meters of drilling on four properties. We're pretty excited about that. We will be extremely active this year. The good news for us is that we've really fortified the treasury. There's $24 million dollars in the treasury and we've got two gold deposits which should get bigger through drilling.” While Eastmain has many properties, they are currently focused on their flagship, Clearwater, which hosts the Eau Claire deposit and their second deposit, the Eastmain Mine. “We'll concentrate firstly on our Eau Claire Gold deposit”, said Robinson. “ We've drilled the deposit in detail within the top 300 meters, and will continue drilling at depth and laterally beside the known deposit area. The idea is to convert inferred resources into measured and indicated resources and to find additional tonnage.” Moving inferred resources into the indicated category is a goal for Eastmain at the Eau Claire deposit. Robinson said, “Right now we have 300,000 ounces in the indicated category and 700,000 ounces in inferred. We are hoping to improve upon that.”
The Eau Claire deposit has given Robinson reason to be optimistic. He said, “From our drilling, we have 500 vein intercepts, which have a very nice grade to them, an average of about 15grams per tonne gold. And, we have a new target type in the deposit. In addition to the high-grade veins, it's obvious that there is a bulk-tonnage type setting where you can composite the best veins that come to the surface. We may, perhaps, look at Eau Claire as an open pit to start with. And because of higher gold prices, the location of Eau Claire with respect to infrastructure and it’s physical location, outcropping on the top of a hill, a bulk mining operation may be a reasonable scenario.”
Another deposit has also shown promise. Robinson explains, “The other thing that is going to be exciting is that we have a second gold deposit. We completed our first drill program on the historic Eastmain Gold Mine deposit last year. We intersected high-gold grades where there was nothing on the map. So, in other words, there were resources that we didn't know existed. That's the whole point of doing drilling, trying to define resources.” The results from the drill program offered positive results. Robinson said, “For example, we had 9.5 meters at 12 grams per tonne gold and another 5.5 meters at 16 grams per tonne gold. Those included some high-grade intervals of as much as 101 grams per tonne gold, so with current prices at about $40 a gram, we’re certainly adding value to the project.”
KEY OBJECTIVES
Because of the progress at the Eau Claire deposit, more investors are becoming interested in Eastmain Resources. When asked why investors are more interested than ever in Eastmain, Robinson commented, “Money in the bank; We work in the best possible location in the world; We have assets that are clearly of interest to producing companies and we're expanding those through drilling. So, all those things combined bode well for the company. The company has grown itself to market capitalization of $165 million dollars so we're now hitting more radar screens than before.”
According to Robinson, what really makes Eastmain attractive is their resources. He said, “How many companies actually have resources, let alone ones that are mineable”? Moving those deposits forward is part of the job that Eastmain is currently facing. Said Robinson, “Our business is to expand the deposits until they are to the point where they are ready to move into the development-stage and then sell them to a producing company.” At this time, Eastmain Resources has no interest in taking any of their projects into production or getting involved in a joint venture on their most advanced project. Robinson explained, “We're not going to go to production ourselves and we're not going to joint venture our flagship. Our plan is to sell the asset to a producing company while keeping a royalty, take the cash that's in the company, take the other deposit, and the pipeline of other projects and do it again.” With this plan, Eastmain will continue to focus on actively exploring deposits in area, bringing them up in value for other companies to take to production.
Eastmain Resources is solid financially. According to Robinson, “There's $24 million in the bank and our budget is $9.3 million dollars. So, we have sufficient funds to operate for quite a period of time. We are in good shape financially. We don't have to go raising money, and the money that we have raised has been at a premium, without any warrants attached.” From a management perspective, Robinson appreciates the lack of warrants and sees that as a positive for the company as a whole. He said, “[With no warrants,] there's no overhang of pressure from being able to sell the stock and keep the warrant, because we didn't issue any. That's a positive. There's 93.8 million shares issued with a $165 million dollar market cap.”
With a clear focus on exploration, a solid drilling plan ready for 2011, financial stability and a clear objective to develop the Eau Claire deposit, Eastmain is in an enviable position for the near term as they move their gold holdings forward by actively drilling and exploring for the future.
For more information:
http://www.eastmain.com
CORPORATE ADDRESS EXPLORATION OFFICE
50 Richmond Street East 834572 4th Line,
Suite 101, Mono Twp,
Toronto, Ontario RR#1 Orangeville, Ontario
Canada Canada
M5C 1N7 L9W 2Y8
Tel: 519-940-4870
Fax: 519-940-4871
Email:info@eastmain.com