Expatriate struggling to raise funds

Vancouver — Cominco (CLT-T) has granted Expatriate Resources (EXR-V) a payment extension for the purchase of the Kudz Ze Kayah deposit in the Finlayson Lake District in the Yukon.

Expatriate will have until Sept. 5 to make the $1-million payment, which was originally due May 24. The payment is the first of four annual principal payments which were part last year’s agreement between Expatriate and Cominco, whereby Expatriate could acquire a 100% interest in the Kudz Ze Kayah deposit and surrounding properties. Kudz Ze Kayah is a fundamental part of Expatriate’s plan to synergistically develop two deposits in the region.

In return for the extension, Expatriate will pay Cominco $100,000 and interest on the $1 million from May 24 until the date of payment. All other terms of the agreement are unchanged. The extension provides Expatriate with the opportunity to find alternative financing and working capital to advance the Finlayson project to a bankable feasibility study. The junior says it has initiated discussions with several groups for debt and equity financing. Exploration on the Kudz Ze Kayah property will be deferred until Expatriate pays Cominco.

The Finlayson project is a conceptual combination of the Kudz Ze Kayah deposit, which is owned by Expatriate under a purchase agreement with Cominco, and the Wolverine deposit, which is owned 60% by Expatriate and 40% by Atna Resources (ATN-T).

Nearby, exploration on Expatriate’s wholly owned Red Line and Goal Net properties is scheduled to commence in late June.

This spring, a horizontal-loop electromagnetic ground survey was completed on the Red Line property. It delineated a 500-metre-long conductor to the north of another shallow conductor, which was previously tested by a number of drill holes and returned narrow intervals of massive sulphides.

Geophysical and geochemical field surveys on the Goal Net property are scheduled for summer to evaluate the extension of a massive-sulphide horizon discovered last fall. Narrow massive sulphides were intersected in two holes spaced about 400 metres apart. Previous soil surveys have defined numerous zinc-lead-copper-silver-gold anomalies in an area measuring 4 km by 6 km.

Expatriate expects drilling to commence in July at Red Line and Goal Net. All of the known massive sulphides in these properties are very low in selenium concentration. They appear to correlate with the rhyolitic rocks that host the GP4F deposit, 7 km to the northwest.

Expatriate believes that the GP4F deposit, as well as the Redline and Goal Net massive-sulphide discoveries, represent a lower mineralized horizon and have the potential to host significant tonnages. The company feels that additional discoveries on these properties would provide added value to the entire Finlayson project.