East Asia Minerals has confirmed that its Binebase-Bawone gold prospect on Sangihe Island, Indonesia, is a priority exploration target.

This follows a trench intercept of 7.8 metres grading 15.6 grams/tonne gold and 195 grams/tonne silver from the Brown Sugar Zone at the south end of the prospect.

The Binebase-Bawone prospect is one of several gold mineralized occurrences in the Sangihe tenement. The mineralization occurs as sub-parallel zones associated with strike-slip faults, and as stratabound bodies.

Shallow drilling by previous explorers encountered several strong intersections such as 91.3 metres with 2.45 grams/tonne gold, 0.42% copper and 12.0 grams/tonne silver.

A 1000 metre phase 1 diamond drilling program is underway on the prospect with the objective of confirming mineralized intersections encountered by Ashton Mining in the 1990s, and to validate their lateral continuity as indicated by the high gold values obtained from trench sampling.

Mineralization in the target area is reinterpreted as near surface, shallow north dipping layers.

Mapping and sampling also continues at East Asia Minerals' Aceh Province projects.