Eastmain Resources Inc. (ER:TSX) announced that a winter diamond drill program is underway at its Eau Claire gold deposit located in Northern Québec. Up to 4,000 metres of drilling in 6 holes is planned to trace the deeper, down-plunge or southeast-rake extension of the high-grade, quartz-tourmaline vein system. The program will focus on testing the Eau Claire vein system at vertical depths of 400 to 750 metres in search of lode gold ores. Drilling will target the downward extension of mineralization intersected in hole 38 (13.7 g/t gold across 5.0 metres or 0.40 oz ton/16.4 ft, including 42.6 g/t gold across 1.5 metres or 1.24 oz ton /4.92 ft) as well as mineralization below and lateral to hole 44. Hole 44 intersected three parallel high-grade veins ranging from 11.9 to 20.4 g/t gold across intervals from 1.4 to 1.6 metres at 600 metres vertical depth (News release - November 11, 2004).

The Eau Claire gold deposit includes an indicated gold resource of 1,029,332 tonnes grading 9.46 g/t gold containing approximately 310,000 ounces and an inferred resource of 3,049,660 tonnes at 6.93 g/t gold containing an estimated 680,000 ounces. Eau Claire is a very large (1.5-km long by 750-metre deep) high-grade, "brittle" vein system which is open at depth. Virginia Gold Mine's Roberto gold deposit at Eléonore consists of a large sedimentary-hosted lode gold deposit, recently purchased by Goldcorp Inc. for approximately US$420 million. Drilling in the northeastern periphery of the Roberto zone intersected a series of ³brittle² gold-bearing, en-echelon quartz veins similar to those at Eau Claire. The known brittle vein system at Eau Claire may also lead to a comparable larger tonnage lode gold deposit.

In many well-known gold deposits, the exploration of one ore-type often leads to the discovery of another, often richer or more robust ore, within a mineralized system. The lower grade sulfide gold ore at Red Lake ultimately led Goldcorp Inc. to the discovery of its High Grade Zone (HGZ) at depth.

Upon approval of environmental permitting, Eastmain plans to extract a bulk test sample to determine the mining, milling and metallurgical parameters of the Eau Claire gold deposit. This information will provide the basis for a NI43-101 compliant economic analysis (scoping study) of Eau Claire.

Don Robinson, PhD, PGeo., is the qualified person for this release.

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