SMSE, a Wholly-Owned Subsidiary of CME, Announces Positive Results From its 2015 Drilling Campaign at Saint-Elie Concession in French Guiana. Hole SE-15-105 Intersected 10.2 Meters at...

CAYENNE, FRENCH GUIANA--(Marketwired - March 2, 2016) - La Societe des Mines de Saint-Elie, a wholly-owned subsidiary of La Compagnie Miniere Esperance ("SMSE" or the "Company") is pleased to announce positive results from its 2015 diamond drilling program on its 99km² mining concession Saint-Elie in French Guiana.

Highlights 2015

• 15 HQ & NQ diameter diamond drill holes;
• 1,252 meters of drilling;
• 7 of the 15 holes intersected gold mineralization, hole SE-15-99 was redrilled and called SE-15-99 bis due to low core recovery;
• Oriented cores were analyzed for structural data;
• An airborne LIDAR survey was conducted in July and;
• SMSE was granted in January 2016 a PER (PEDRAL) of 53 km² located to the northwest of the Saint-Elie concession.

Saint-Elie mine, history and current situation

Saint-Elie region has a long history of gold mining. Gold was discovered on the property in 1873 when two placers were discovered on the limit of the current concession. La Societe Anonyme des Gisements d'Or de Saint-Elie, owner of the concession from 1878 to 1923, produced approximately 354,000 ounces of gold. After an ownership changes in 1923, a mill was installed and produced around 116,500 ounces of gold until 1955. From 1956 to 1993, small-scale intermittent mining was conducted on the site. In the mid-1970's, the Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Miniere (BRGM) started its scientific work on the property. In 1998, Guyanor Resources, a subsidiary of Golden Star, bought the concession and changed the name of the operating society to Societé des Mines de Saint-Elie (SMSE). 2,224 ounces of gold were produced from the concession between 1998 and 2000. Production stopped from 2000 to 2002.

In 2002, CME acquired SMSE and proceeded exploration works. In 2005, production restarted.

In the last three years, SMSE produced 8,900 ounces (276.8 kg) of gold in 2013, 8,216 ounces (255.5 kg) in 2014 and 8,777 ounces (273 kg) in 2015. Since 2005, SMSE produced almost 70,000 ounces (2.167 tonnes) of gold.

The actual gravimetric recuperation plant processes 1,300 tpd of primary mineralized material. Two wash plants process 1,000 tpd of eluvial material each.

Attached table of the results from the first diamond drilling campaign conducted by SMSE on the Saint-Élie concession.

Main Gold Intersection by fire-assay
Hole	From (m)	To (m)	Length (m)	Au (*) g/t	Zone
SE-15-98	52.05	64	11.65	0.78	Michel
SE-15-99bis	35	37.15	2.11	1.11	Michel
SE-15-100	45.2	56.25	11.05	0.49	Michel
SE-15-100	69.55	76.50	6.95	2.45	Michel
SE-15-105	42.0	52.20	10.2	4.16	Michel
SE-15-107	9.45	18.90	9.45	1.64	St-Auguste
SE-15-108	13.5	25	11.5	2.25	Pedral
SE-15-109	26.15	30.44	4.29	1.02	Pedral
*Gold by fire-assay Filab Surinam - Core length, true width must still be determined.

Holes were drilled to test zones previously identified by trenches and/or historic drill hole. Some holes were drilled to test the structural model and others were drilled to confirm the continuity of the mineralization. 2 two-holes scissors sections on Pedral, 1 test hole on St-Auguste and 10 holes on Michel were realized in this campaign. Over half of the holes intersected gold mineralization. Core recovery of altered material on the St-Elie property is difficult and on multiple occasion, there was a complete loss of the sample of the zone of interest.

No significant gold mineralization was intersected on holes SE-15-101, SE-15-102, SE-15-103, SE-25-105, SE-15-106, SE-15-110 and SE-15-111.

The first attached map shows the Saint-Elie mine location and the second shows the different drilling sector : http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/GraphsGoldminds.pdf

The analytical control program QA/QC included blanks and standards and are satisfactory to allow the release of the results.

Alexandre Cailleau, Chief Geologist, declares: "We are extremely pleased with the results of this preliminary diamond drilling program at Saint-Elie. They allowed us to challenge our idea of the control of the mineralization and to anticipate a different approach for the next phase, which will be significantly more ambitious. The deposits are complex and highly deformed in those zones, we must adapt our work methods. The key point is that almost all of our pits in the southeast quarter of the concession are successes, it's very impressive! A global structural model is starting to emerge from our filed mapping works, which only started 6 months ago. Taken into account the history and the large area of the property, the Saint-Elie potential is important. Less than 20% of the area has been worked. We started a mineral resources update in compliance to the NI 43-101 Canadian standards to communicate with potential partners the seriousness of our works. Meet us at PDAC, stand 3034 for further information…"

The technical content of this press release was prepared and revised by Claude Duplessis, geological engineer at GoldMinds Geoservices Inc., an Independent Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101 standards.

About CME and SMSE

CME is a private Guyanese company owner of two mining sites:

• ESPERANCE in the town of Apatou;
• SAINT-ELIE in the town of Saint-Élie; the mining title is held by SMSE (Societe des Mines de Saint-Elie), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CME. This concession was acquired from Golden Star.

For more information on SMSE visit: www.esperancegoldmine.com, SMSE tab.