Eagle Plains/Bethpage Capital Corp Execute Option Agreement for Hall Lake Property, South-eastern British Columbia

Cranbrook, B.C., 16 September, 2011: Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. (EPL:TSX-V) announces that it has entered into a formal option agreement with Bethpage Capital Corp., (a private B.C. company), whereby Bethpage may earn an undivided 60% interest in Eagle Plains’ 100% owned Hall Lake Property located 30km west of Kimberley, British Columbia. Under terms of the agreement, Bethpage will complete exploration expenditures of $3,000,000, make cash payments of $260,000 and issue 1,000,000 common shares to EPL over a fifty-four month period. 

A $100,000 airborne geophysical survey consisting of 484 line-km of VTEM is expected to commence immediately.

Property Geology

The road-accessible property is approximately 30 sq-km in size and overlies rocks of the Purcell Supergroup, including the Creston and Aldridge Formation sediments. A large Cretaceous-aged granitic intrusive is located along a major structural corridor, with associated intrusive dykes and sills found to have associations with both gold and silver mineralization. Prospecting by Eagle Plains reported grab samples of dyke material ranging from trace values up to 2.45 g/t gold and silver values of up to 42 g/t. 

The property is host to a major regional-scale north-south trending structure which is interpreted to be associated with the Iron Range structure. Increased activity in the area was precipitated by the discovery in late 2010 of gold-rich base-metal mineralization possibly associated with the structure within the boundaries of the Iron Range property, which is currently being explored by partners Eagle Plains and Providence Resources Corp.

Highlights from drill hole IR10-010 on the Iron Range property include:

  • 196.9-204.0m: 7.1m @ 8.13g/t Au, 5.91% Pb/Zn, 86.6g/t Ag 
  • 224.0-280.5m: 56.5m @ 1.9g/t Au, 21.5g/t Ag 
  • Also including lowermost 277.5-279.5m: 2.0m @ 12.8g/t Au, 9.24% Pb/Zn, 122.5g/t Ag; elevated Cd, Sb, Sn, Bi, B, Cu. 

The airborne geophysical work in the East Kootenay region is part of a major (4,000 line-km) airborne geophysical survey being carried out in the region by Eagle Plains and various partners as announced on September 9th, 2011. The airborne geophysical survey is part of an ongoing, systematic exploration approach being carried out by Eagle Plains and its partners within rocks of the Belt-Purcell Supergroup for over a decade. The Belt-Purcell Supergroup is host to the world-class Sullivan Deposit, which over its 100 year lifetime, produced approximately 150,000,000 tonnes of ore including 300,000,000 ounces of silver, 8,000,000 tonnes of zinc and 8,000,000 tonnes of lead, collectively worth over $45 billion at current metal prices. The parties caution that past results or discoveries on proximate land are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be achieved on the Hall Lake property.

The geophysical survey is expected to be completed by late September, subject to weather conditions and contractor availability.

About Eagle Plains Resources 

Eagle Plains continues to conduct research, acquire and explore metal projects throughout western Canada. In addition to holding mining royalties on various projects, Eagle Plains controls over 35 gold, base-metal and uranium projects, many with third parties including MMG (owned by Minmetals Resources Ltd HKSE:1208), Aben Resources Ltd. (TSX-V:ABN), Providence Capital Corp. (TSX-V:PV), Bethpage Capital Corp., Waterloo Resources Ltd. (TSX-V:WAT.P), Blackrock Resources Ltd. (a private B.C. company); Turnberry Resources Ltd. (TSX-V:TUR.P); Heemskirk Canada Ltd., Drexel Resources Ltd. (TSX-V), Rosedale Resources Ltd (a private B.C. company), Slater Mining Corp (TSX-V:SLM), Olympic Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: OLA.P), Touchdown Capital Inc. (TSX-V: TDW), Bluefire Mining Corp. (a private BC company), Active Growth Capital (TSX-V:ACK) and Giyani Gold Corp. (TSX-V:WDG). In recent years, Eagle Plains has completed option agreements with Teck Limited (TSX:TCK.B), Alexco Resource Corp. (TSX-V:AXR), Billiton Metals, Rio Algom Exploration, NovaGold Resources, Kennecott Exploration and numerous other junior exploration companies, resulting in over 53,600m (163,370’) of drilling and over $28.3 million in exploration spending on its projects since 1998. 

Expenditures during 2011 are expected to be approximately $8,000,000 to be funded by Eagle Plains and third party partners. This exploration work will result in approximately 9400m diamond drilling and extensive ground-based exploration work facilitating the advancement of more than 15 projects at various stages of development. 

This news release has been reviewed and approved by T.J. Termuende, P.Geo., hereby designated as a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

“Tim J. Termuende”
President and CEO

For further information on EPL, please contact Mike Labach at 1 866 HUNT ORE (486 8673)
Email: mgl@eagleplains.com or visit our website at http://www.eagleplains.com

 

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.

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