TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Vancouver-based junior Eagle Hill Exploration on Tuesday revealed that it had signed up Agnico Eagle Mines veteran Paul-Henri Girard to its board and assigned him to start work on a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) study for the Windfall Lake gold project, located between Val-d'Or and Chibougamau, Quebec.

The TSX-listed firm said its board was so impressed with the results of its 2014 winter drill programme, including a 38% rise in the indicated mineral outlined in an updated resource estimate, that it had now decided to move forward with a PEA to glean more clarity on the potential of advancing the high-grade deposit to production.

Girard, who was appointed to the board following the company’s annual general meeting on Tuesday, was made the lead director to manage the PEA process. He is a mining engineer with extensive hands-on experience in planning and operating Canadian mines.

Girard started his career with Falconbridge Copper as a mining engineer in 1980 and moved to Agnico Eagle in 1987 as the chief engineer of the LaRonde mine, in Quebec. He held increasingly senior positions with Agnico Eagle over a 25-year period, eventually retiring from the position of VP for Canadian operations in 2012.

"Initiating a PEA study clearly indicates the board's intention to advance the Windfall Lake gold project. We welcome Girard to the board and look forward to his input as we advance this high-grade gold deposit one step closer to production,” Eagle Hill chairperson and CEO John Proust said.

The company also on Tuesday announced the results from its 2014 winter drill programme, saying the assays confirmed the lateral continuity of gold mineralisation of Zone 27, which was found to host the majority of the indicated mineral resource.

The 3 333 m winter drill programme was aimed at testing for gold mineralisation below shallow lakes and the company drilled extensions of Zone 27 at shallow depths, while also testing the western extension of the induced polarisation anomaly associated with the main zone.

Among the drill highlights were 18.5 g/t gold over an interval of 3.38 m, 7.04 g/t gold over 6.2 m, 20.45 g/t gold over 2.6 m and 1.8 g/t over 1 m.

The board had now approved a 2 800 m drilling programme targeting the extension of Zone 27 to the north-east, and planned to deepen six existing drill holes in a target zone that was currently untested.

Eagle Hill published its third resource estimate for the Windfall Lake project in February, with an estimate of 744 000 oz at 9.75 g/t gold in the indicated category, and 731 000 oz at 7.37 g/t gold in the inferred category. The company said, in terms of grades, the project ranked among the top 10% highest-grade, resource-definition-stage gold projects in the world.

On Friday, the company closed a $2.74-million financing.