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East Asia Minerals has signed an agreement to explore and develop the Miwah gold-project in Indonesia. Under the terms of the agreement, EAS has an 85% starting equity in the 30,000 hectare property which encompasses a large epithermal gold prospect with multi-million ounce gold potential indicated by limited historic drilling. The Miwah property is located in Aceh Province, North Sumatra, the most under-explored part of the highly prospective Indonesian archipelago.
Miwah is located within the same arc as the Martabe high sulphidation gold deposit in North Sumatra (>3MOz of gold). The property contains a large high sulphidation epithermal gold prospect that was previously partially defined by approximately 3000 metres of drilling in eleven holes by Highlands Pacific in the 1990s. All holes drilled during this program intersected significant alteration and mineralisation with intercepts including 71m at 1.4 g/t gold and 58m at 1.1 g/t gold. Previous explorers 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, and hence significantly higher overall grades are anticipated from better oriented drill holes.
In addition to the anticipated increase in width and tenor of mineralisation that will potentially be realised by better drilling orientation at Miwah, EAS is particularly interested in conducting work within and around a large hydrothermal breccia (600m x 200m) located in the southeastern part of the prospect. Here historical surface sampling returned numerous samples grading in excess of 2g/t gold, yet only one corner of the breccia was tested by three short drill holes. 2008 EAS trench sampling has resulted in some very significant gold intercepts. Additionally, high-grade enargite boulders with up to 20% copper have been noted in drainages leading from the prospect and these are interpreted as indicating the presence of a high-sulphidation massive sulphide body on the property. Historic preliminary metallurgical test work indicates good gold recovery by cyanide leach.
Exploration will commence with Phase 1 drill testing of the targets already identified by geology, geophysics and geochemistry at the Miwah prospect. EAS has already commenced surface validation and reports that of the first 13 samples to be analysed, eight returned greater than 1g/t gold, with the average grade of the mineralised samples being 2.5 g/t gold. The company intends to begin drilling in late 2008 in coordination with its other advanced Indonesian projects.
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