Vancouver, British Columbia, July 31, 2006 (TSX Venture: EMX) - Eurasian Minerals Inc. (the “Company” or “EMX”) is pleased to announce that it has acquired the La Mine and Lamiel gold properties, located in the Caribbean country of Haiti. Both properties have epithermal gold mineralization documented by United Nations Development Program (UNDP) work, and are hosted in a geological terrain similar to the world-class Pueblo Viejo gold deposit located approximately 225 km to the east. EMX management believes that Haiti has significant geologic potential for the discovery of major new gold deposits. This potential, coupled with an improving business climate in Haiti, follows EMX’s strategy of working in under-explored regions with excellent discovery opportunities.
Overview
The geology of Haiti is very prospective for epithermal gold-silver as well as copper-gold porphyry deposits, and consists of preserved remnants of an early Cretaceous island arc assemblage situated along the northern margin of the Caribbean Plate. This geologic environment hosts numerous gold and copper occurrences in Haiti, as well as the Pueblo Viejo deposit in the adjacent Dominican Republic. Pueblo Viejo has estimated resources and reserves of 15.25 million ounces of gold and 82.8 million ounces of silver (www.barrick.com, July, 2006). However, even though Haiti’s mineral potential is similar to that found in the Dominican Republic, it has remained under-explored due to the country’s historic economic and political instability.
From 1972 to 1985, in order to assist in developing Haiti’s economy, the UNDP conducted extensive regional geological studies and exploration programs. The UNDP work is credited with discovering and documenting many gold and copper occurrences, including the gold mineralization at EMX’s new La Mine and Lameil properties. These two project areas are covered by four EMX Exploration Permits totaling 37,788 hectares of mineral rights.
La Mine Project
The La Mine project is centered 15 km south of the Atlantic Ocean and approximately 50 km west of the port city of Cap Haitien. The property consists of one 9,950 hectare Exploration Permit, and includes three separate mineralized prospects at La Mine, Colombo, and Rivieres des Barres. Gold-silver-barite mineralization at La Mine was discovered by the UNDP, and explored by Kennecott from 1975 to 1977 (Kennecott results currently unavailable). Mineralization and alteration occurs over an area extending approximately 7 km north-south, and 1 to 2 km east-west, exposed through a series of structural windows. The UNDP (1980) reported that the area contains extensive epithermal mineralization, including massive barite with gold, massive sulfides, and an extensive epithermal stockwork-vein zone, with attendant goldbearing gossans hosted by andesitic to dacitic volcanic rocks.
Within the La Mine prospect sub-area, the UNDP (1980) identified all three styles of mineralization:
- A zone of steeply dipping massive barite with sulfides and trench sampling results over 17 meters averaging 7.6 g/t Au, using a 1.0 g/t cutoff.
- A massive sulfide type of mineralization, including a boulder assaying 8.4% Cu, 1.2% Zn, 4.8 g/t Au, and 64.9 g/t Ag. The source of the boulder has yet to be identified.
- The third style of mineralization consists of an extensive stockwork vein zone that is reported to be 3 kms long (north-south) and approximately 100 to 200 meters wide. The stockwork mineralization was reported to contain 5 to 30% sulfides composed of pyrite-chalcopyritesphalerite.