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The Gold Report Interview with Eric Lemieux
"No Gold Bubble"
Laurentian Securities Analyst Eric Lemieux was headed out into the field a few days after this interview to check out the latest progress on some of his favorite exploration plays in the James Bay area of eastern Canada. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, he shared his latest insights on the gold market, and his current thinking on some of his favorite plays in the vast untapped areas of Quebec and Ontario now being opened up to expanded exploration efforts by both juniors and majors.
TGR: The James Bay region has turned into a hotbed of exploration and a lot of companies are looking at things up there. One that you talked about in the past was Eastmain Resources Inc. (TSX:ER). What's going on with that situation?
EL: The James Bay region is a hot area that is vast and under explored. It will become even hotter as Goldcorp Inc.'s (TSX:G; NYSE:GG) Eleonore Project gets its permits for full blast construction toward the end of this summer.
What I find interesting for the James Bay area and Northern Quebec is the fact that the Quebec Government has just announced the Quebec Plan-Nord that will provide even better road, power and communication infrastructure to the area. Although there is some amazing infrastructure right now in the James Bay area, potential expansion, on a sustainable development basis, should provide a competitive advantage.
The Cree Nation, Inuit and Innu people are participating more and more, which opens up to sustainable development in that area and bodes well for social acceptability.
Eastmain has three very good positions-the Eastmain Mine, Clearwater and Eleonore South projects. The last one is a joint venture with Azimut Exploration Inc. (TSX.V:AZM) and Goldcorp. Eastmain released a new global resource estimate of 1.6 Moz. in April on the Eau Claire deposit. There was a substantial increase in the measured component of the mineral resource estimate. The project includes both an open pit and an underground target. The open-pit component has about 4.1 million tons grading 4.7 grams/ton, which is at the higher end of grade for open-pit mined gold deposits. So that is a positive.
Eastmain is currently drilling toward the west of the 450 West Zone in a new zone called the 850 West Zone that wasn't part of the mineral resource estimate in April. There is a lot of upside to increase that mineral resource, both for the underground potential and the open pit scenarios. I expect that for the Eau Claire Project some news will emerge in the course of the year. I think some interesting things will come from the Eau Claire as the company has the advantage of good infrastructure and accessibility.
Eastmain also has the Eastmain Mine Project, which was quite remote. It's going toward Stornoway Diamond Corp.'s project where the Quebec government will soon extend Route 167, the Otish Mountain Route. Eventually, it will be accessible via a hard surface road rather than an old winter road. The Eastmain Mine Project has now started to drill and has about 15,000m planned. Again, this is a gold project with a known mineral resource that is open for expansion.
The Eleonore South Project is a joint venture with Goldcorp and Azimut Exploration located to the southeast of the Eleonore deposit. Goldcorp is working very aggressively on the Eleonore project, and building a world-class mine there, but I know it is also active on the exploration front in areas further from the mine site. I believe the Eleonore South project will eventually be re-worked by the partners and could become an interesting development project in the long term.
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