TORONTO, Ontario, July 30, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Eastmain Resources Inc. (TSX:ER) is pleased to announce that SOQUEM has waived its back-in right to Clearwater in exchange for 1 million common shares of the Corporation. In March 2002, Eastmain and SOQUEM entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) defining terms enabling the Corporation to acquire a 75% interest in the Clearwater Project. Under the terms of the MOU, SOQUEM granted Eastmain the option to earn an additional 25% interest in the Property in exchange for $2.5 Million in work expenditures over a four-year period. Upon Eastmain exercising its option, SOQUEM held a one-time, 60-day, back-in right to earn 25% interest in the Property for $3.0 Million in work expenditures over a five-year period.
Through government exploration-incentive financial rebates Eastmain has been able to reduce its net expenditures at Clearwater by 60% while essentially cutting the earn-in period in half. A comprehensive million-dollar trenching and drilling program is under way. The objectives of the program are to increase the gold resource at Eau Claire, discover new zones of potential mineralization and to complete the Company's 75% earn-in requirements -two years ahead of schedule.
2003 exploration will focus on drilling the Eau Claire gold deposit near surface and at depth. Surface work will concentrate on testing regional rock and soil anomalies coincident with favourable geophysical signatures in the western third of the property. As part of the current program Eastmain has completed two holes in the Eau Claire deposit area. ER-03-19 and ER-03-20, were drilled to test the depth extension of the known gold zone along a central southeastern trend or "rake" containing above average gold grades and vein thicknesses. Assays are pending.
Drilling will continue to evaluate this gold-enriched trend at depth. The drill program will test both lateral and vertical extensions of the main group of gold-bearing veins (D, G, H, I, P and JQ) near the eastern and western limits of the deposit. Drilling will also test for the extension of a gold-copper-silver-rich sulphide zone located south of the main group of veins, which was discovered during last year's program.
In a recent budget update the government of Quebec announced that it would honour existing incentive programs to June 12, 2003. As of June 12th all eligible exploration expenditures will qualify for financial rebates at 45%. The elimination of SOQUEM's back-in combined with rebates allows Eastmain to maintain management of the project and accelerate exploration.
Eau Claire contains an estimated total mineral resource of 2,666,493 tonnes grading 6.75 grams gold per tonne (7.37 g/t uncut), calculated by Robert A. Campbell, P. Geo and Qualified Person. This includes an indicated resource of 1,024,968 tonnes at 8.15 g/t gold (9.43 g/t uncut) and an inferred resource of 1,641,525 tonnes at 5.88 g/t gold (6.08 g/t uncut). - News release May 1, 2003.
Eastmain's primary objective is the exploration, discovery and development of long-life, low-cost, profitable ore deposits in Canada. The Company is listed on The Toronto Stock Exchange trading under the symbol "ER".
SOQUEM INC. is a wholly owned subsidiary of SGF Mineral Inc., which is a subsidiary of the Societe Generale de Financement (SGF). The mission of the SGF is to carry out economic development projects in co-operation with partners and in accordance with accepted requirements of profitability.
Trading Symbol: ER - The Toronto Stock Exchange