Eurasian digging up gold in Haiti (June 25, 2007)

Vancouver — Known for venturing into politically unstable territory, Eurasian Minerals (EMX-V, ESMNF-O) is setting up in Haiti, and trench results from the company’s La Miel gold project show strong potential.

The La Miel project consists of four exploration permits covering a 35-km-long segment of terrain roughly similar to Barrick Gold’s (ABX-T, ABX-N) Pueblo Viejo gold- silver deposit in the neighbouring Dominican Republic. The first six trenches indicate the Savane La Place permit area of the project contains an epithermal gold-silver oxide system open in all directions.

Five of the six trenches were cut northeast-southwest and outlined roughly 500 metres of strike length. Trench 1 dug 243 metres grading 1.71 grams gold per tonne, including a higher-grade zone of 69 metres averaging 3.93 grams gold. Trench 3 returned 1.9 grams gold over 72 metres, open at both ends, and included 36 metres grading 2.82 grams gold. The fourth trench intersected 75 metres of 1.19 grams gold; the sixth trench returned 1.03 grams gold over 105 metres.

Trench 5 was cut perpendicular to the others in order to test the continuity of mineralization and width of the trend. It returned 69 metres grading 0.81 gram gold, and extended the width of the system to 350 metres. Together, the trench results indicate Savane La Place hosts a central, higher-grade gold zone depleted in barite, surrounded by a broad zone of anomalous gold mineralization containing significant barite and variable copper levels.

“I was surprised at the results — they truly exceeded our expectations,” says geologist Keith Laskowski, Eurasian’s Haiti project manager.

Laskowski says the next step is to evaluate the district-scale potential of the Savane La Place permit area because several other areas of mineralization have already been identified.

Eurasian acquired two Haitian gold properties, the La Miel and La Mine projects, in July 2006. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) discovered gold mineralization in both areas through extensive exploration from 1972 to 1985, carried out to try and assist in developing Haiti’s economy.

The discovery indicated that Haiti might have mineral potential similar to that found in the Dominican Republic, where the Pueblo Viejo deposit has estimated res- erves of 15 million contained ounces gold and 83 million ounces silver. But the potential remained mostly unexplored because of Haiti’s economic and political instability.

Eurasia president and CEO David Cole says the company looks for underexplored areas.

“We love to get into areas that have excellent geology but also have perceived political turmoil, so that there’s limited competition,” he says.

The political, economic, and social turmoil in Haiti is not simply a perception; it is a reality. But Cole says the company’s projects are really not threatened by the instability.

“Importantly, our projects are nowhere near Port au Prince,” he says, referring to Haiti’s often violence-plagued capital. “We are in a low population-density, rural area, and the people there are just like rural people anywhere else: they want some company, and they want economic development.”

Cole also says the last election in Haiti, which in February 2006 saw Rene Preval of the Lespwa coalition elected president after four election postponements and numerous counting controversies, was a turning point for the country.

“Things are stabilizing, and Keith (Laskowski) saw that coming,” Cole says. “On his hunch, we went in and quickly became the largest claim holder in the country.”

The lack of competition worked to Eurasian’s advantage.

“We had almost a complete free-for-all in terms of the land we wanted to claim, so we were able to get some very good plots,” Cole says.

And the country’s warm welcome has extended beyond land claims.

“The (mining) ministry has welcomed our investment with open arms — we’ve received nothing but an altruistic desire on its part to help us come in and add to the economic development and value of their country,” Cole says.

Laskowski, who now spends much of his time in Haiti, agrees.

“In the world of exploration — it’s a bit more difficult than Canada, simply because the government lacks a lot of the things we take for granted, like consistent electricity, but it’s less difficult to work here than it is in a lot of places,” he says.

As project manager, Laskowski is doing what he can to develop the project to the benefit of the community.

“For me, that’s why I’m here: I think mining is one of the few industries that really has the potential to contribute to developing societies,” he says. “We’re putting in a huge effort: a lot of foreign companies would bring in their own staff, but our staff — which is only nine people, but still — our whole operation is run by nationals.”

Eurasian’s investment in Haiti is bound to grow. The company has not started exploring its other major property, the La Mine site, but Cole says the historical results for that region are stronger than those from the La Miel area.