Asquith steps up drilling at African gold properties

Several drill programs are under way on Asquith Resources’ (ASQH-C) gold properties in Africa and at home.

In the Central African Republic, the junior has launched a percussion drilling program to follow up encouraging results from grab samples taken on the Roandji gold property.

Samples AG-01 and AG-03, considered representative of quartz veins found within a 32-metre-wide shear zone at the Agoudou-Manga prospect, returned 20.5 grams (0.6 oz.) and 1,430 grams (41.4 oz.) gold per tonne, respectively.

The northwest-southeast-striking shear zone occurs within a saprolitic quartz-mica shist and consists of a series of stockwork quartz stringers and veins with individual widths of up to 1.5 metres.

Using two percussion rigs for soil sampling, Asquith has completed 35 holes to depths of up to 10 metres in the vicinity of the Agoudou-Manga prospect.

Results are expected within the next few weeks.

Similar sampling at the Ndassima propsect, 25 km to the north, returned minor gold values ranging from 5 to 282 parts per billion gold. The prospect coincides with a satellite anomaly interpreted to represent areas of intense clay alteration and silicification.

Meanwhile, at the Diana property 216 km north of Winnipeg, Man., Asquith is using a 1,500-metre diamond drill progam to test the strike and depth potential of the past-producing Diana mine and other gold zones.

The property is in the Rice Lake greenstone belt, where gold mineralization is associated with quartz-filled shear zones within gabbroic intrusives.

There is also some evidence of gold associated with iron formation, 15 km northwest of the Diana mine shaft.

Asquith expects to have completed the 12-hole program by mid-August.