Eurasian’s willingness to risk starting to pay off

Vancouver – Eurasian Minerals’ (EMX-V) decision to play the risk-reward gamble looks to be paying off: the junior’s properties in Turkey, Haiti, Romania, and the Kyrgyz Republic are all returning promising results for the well-funded company.

First to southern Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, where Eurasian owns the Orgatash gold prospect. Orgatash is part of the Gezart exploration licence, which covers part of the Southern Tien Shan gold belt and where intrusion-related gold deposits relate to a Permian-aged tonalite intrusions through siltstone units.

Eurasian’s trench and road cut channel sampling extended the mineralized system’s surface footprint to the south and west; it now strikes 800 metres and covers 400 metres width. Notable channel results include 1.75 grams gold per tonne over 62.4 metres, 1.77 grams gold over 65.8 metres, and 1.36 grams gold over 58.2 metres.

The company also drilled eight holes into Orgatash and hit significant mineralization. Hole 4 returned 1.481 grams gold over 42.3 metres, hole 5 cut 26.6 metres grading 0.798 gram gold, hole 8 hit 45.6 metres averaging 1.183 grams gold, and hole 10 returned 0.849 gram gold over 54.2 metres. All intercepts started at or within a few metres of surface.

Gold at Orgatash is hosted in quartz-veined, locally silicified and potassically-altered tonalite intrusive rock. Initial metallurgical tests show heap leaching extracts some 90% of the gold from Orgatash rock. And interpretation of geophysical data indicates concealed intrusive targets sit to the west and south of the main zone at Orgatash, beneath a shallow veneer of hornfels units.

Following up on success at Orgatash, Eurasian also conducted a licence-wide exploration program and discovered a new intrusion-hosted gold target 9 km west of Orgatash. Geological mapping identified quartz veins and zones of quartz veinlets with anomalous gold mineralization. Selective road cut chip samples returned some promising results, including 1.21 grams gold over 14.3 metres and 1.64 grams gold over 13.7 metres.

Moving west, Eurasian also advancing the Sisorta gold project in Turkey. Sisorta is a joint venture with Chesser Resources, which is earning in up to 51% of the property by spending US$4 million over three years pursuant to an agreement signed a year ago.

The partners drilled 40 core holes at Sisorta this year and completed induced polarization (IP) and ground magnetics surveys over the altered and mineralized footprint, which covers an area 4 km long by 3.4 km wide. The IP survey identified prospective silica-altered gold targets to the north of the main zone as well as porphyry copper targets at depth to the north and east.

As for drilling, the best results came from hole 40, which returned 42.5 metres from surface grading 1.51 grams gold. Hole 48 cut a similar interval: 50.5 metres grading 1.42 grams gold from surface. And hole 42 hit multiple mineralized lenses, including 10.4 metres grading 0.84 grams gold and 15.1 metres of 1.16 grams gold.

Eurasian also holds a 4% net smelter royalty on another property in Turkey within the historic Balya lead-zinc-silver mining district. Owner Dedeman Madencilik has punched 60 core holes totalling 12,600 metres into the Balya property since late 2006 and recently released results from 30 of those holes.

Hole 29 returned one of the strongest results, an 8-metre intercept grading 7.77% lead, 3.47% zinc, and 43.39 grams silver per tonne from 198 metres depth. Hole 30 also hit a well-mineralized zone, returning 7.5 metres grading 8.01% lead, 7.05% zinc, and 103.24 grams silver from 57 metres downhole.

Some intercepts started much closer to surface, such as 21.5 metres grading 1.28% lead, 1.22% zinc, and 10.34 grams silver from 8 metres down hole 28C. Others showed stacked lenses: hole 37 first cut 10 metres grading 3.62% lead, 5.83% zinc, and 92.77 grams silver from 186 metres depth, then hit 11 metres averaging 7.45% lead, 5.48% zinc, and 79.56 grams silver from 216 metres depth.

Eurasian’s largest land package, however, is in Haiti. In fact, Eurasian holds the largest mineral rights package in the country and its exploration efforts in the country are being funded by Newmont Mining (NMC-T, NEM-N), which can spend $30 million over six years to gain a 60% interest.

The most exciting results out of Haiti of late come from the Champagne prospect, where high-grade copper and silver mineralization occurs in a series of subparallel zones. Eurasian trenched and chip-sampled three copper-silver zones where they are exposed at one end. Trench 5 returned a stellar result: 14 metres averaging 19.2% copper, 140 grams silver, and 0.09 gram gold. Other good results include 15 metres of 5.8% copper and 44 grams silver as well as 3.5 metres grading 10.8% copper, 78 grams silver, and 0.46 gram gold.

Eurasian is advancing some five targets in Haiti; results from several programs are pending.

Finally, Eurasian has two early-stage projects in Romania. One is very early stage – the company recently announced that it won a competitive tender process for rights to the Caraci-Birtin exploration licence. The licence covers 35 sq. km in central Romania’s Golden Quadrilateral mining district, which has seen gold production for more than two millennia. The Golden Quadrilateral is also home to Rosia Montana, Europe’s largest gold deposit, where Gabriel Resources outlined 14.6 million oz. gold in 2005.

Eurasian’s new exploration licence includes the abandoned Caraci gold mine, which produced 500,000 tonnes of ore grading roughly 15 grams gold. Eurasian says it will commence exploration at Caraci-Birtin in 2009.

At Eurasian’s other Romanian property, Sopot, the company conducted mapping, soil sampling, and trenching that identified favourable geology and alteration coviner a geochemical anomaly 4 sq. km in size. Sopot occurs in the Banat belt that extends north from copper-gold mines in Serbia.

On its latest news from Turkey Eurasian gained 9¢ to close at 61¢. The company has a 52-week trading range of 51¢ to $2.49 and has 28 million shares issued.