Stratabound’s 100%-owned Elmtree Gold property is situated 19 kilometres northwest of the coastal city of Bathurst, New Brunswick.

A mineral resource estimate was recently provided by Mercator Geological Services Limited, an independent geological consulting firm based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.  The estimate is compliant with the reporting standards of National Instrument 43-101.

The resource on the property comprises 525,000 Indicated tonnes grading 2.45 g/t gold (41,000 ounces gold) plus 4,624,000 Inferred tonnes at an average grade of 1.37 g/t gold (185,000 ounces gold), plus 41,000 Inferred tonnes containing 201,000 ounces of silver, 7.0 million lbs zinc and 2.4 million lbs lead.  A substantial portion of the resource is within 100 metres of surface, giving rise to potential open pit mining opportunities.

The gold resource was established with a total expenditure of approximately $1,425,000, including acquisition and exploration costs up to and including drill hole 41, representing an exceptionally low “finding cost” of about $6.30 per ounce of gold.  This cost would be even lower if potential credits for silver, lead and zinc were taken into account.

The Elmtree resource appears to be comparable in tonnage and grade to many low-grade open pit gold operations of the southwest United States.  Stratabound’s exploration at Elmtree has been based on a Carlin (Nevada) structural gold deposit model.  This approach has been effective in understanding and tracing both the South Gold Zone (SGZ) and Discovery Zone (DZ) at Elmtree.

Stratabound has been working on these claims since 2004, and numerous drill targets remain untested on the original claims. During the winter of 2007/08 the Elmtree property was expanded from 10 claims (400 acres; 162 hectares) to 85 claims (3,398 acres; 1,375 hectares).  The new claims are believed to have a high density of mineral occurrences and anomalies worthy of detailed examination.

Plans for 2008 and 2009 include:

• Additional drilling to expand the higher grade tonnage on the West Gabbro Zone (WGZ)

• Drilling to expand the low-grade bulk tonnage along the SGZ

• Deeper drilling of the SGZ (150 to 200 metres below surface) to determine whether this great thickness of low grade mineralization increases in grade at depth.  It is possible that the near-surface SGZ deposit represents “leakage” from higher grade mineralization at depth.  Some holes would test potential continuity between the SGZ and the adjacent, polymetallic DZ to the east.  

• Initial metallurgical studies to assess gold recovery potential and associated economic cut-off grades 

• Assessment of economic scoping study parameters related to metallurgy, mine design, site engineering, etc. to investigate potential for development of a near-surface, high grade gold mine on the WGZ in combination with near surface open pit development of low grade mineralization in all three zones.  

Drilling is continuing in both the SGZ and WGZ areas.  Results will be released when available.

-  Last updated May 4, 2008

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