Apology to East Asia Minerals and Michael Hawkins (August 16, 2010)

In the story regarding East Asia Minerals published in last week’s paper edition and online, we incorrectly stated that East Asia Minerals had not disclosed to its shareholders that a large portion of its tenements in Indonesia is on land designated as protected forest.

In fact, the company wrote in its August 2007 information circular to shareholders that “almost the entire Miwah tenement is in Protected Forest Area” and that “a special permit from the Indonesian Department of Forestry is required to conduct exploitation in such an area.”

As such, there is no imputation whatsoever by The Northern Miner that East Asia’s President and CEO Michael Hawkins or any other management or directors of East Asia Minerals personally benefited from withholding this information from shareholders.

While it’s widely agreed that Indonesia has its challenges with respect to corporate governance, there is also no imputation that a company must engage in illegal activities in order to acquire a special exploitation permit in a protected forest in Indonesia.

A similar retraction and apology has been published online at www.northernminer.com.

We apologize for and regret any embarrassment, distress, inconvenience or damage to the company and Michael Hawkins resulting from publication of the story.