St. Jude drills for gold in Ghana

Vancouver — St. Jude Resources (SJD-V) has launched a drilling campaign designed to trace the strike and downdip extension of high-grade zones at the Subriso and Hwini-Butre prospects in Ghana, West Africa.

The program will focus on the Subriso Central zone, which has returned intersections as impressive as 12 metres grading 78.71 grams gold per tonne.

St. Jude has completed more than 16,000 metres of trenching and more than 35,000 metres of drilling on the two adjacent concessions.

Watts, Griffis & McOuat estimates that Hwini-Butre has an indicated resource of 4.25 million tonnes grading 4.11 grams gold. There is also an inferred resource, consisting of two components: an in situ portion pegged at 1.7 million tonnes grading 3.01 grams gold, and eluvial and reworked surface material totalling 5.7 million tonnes of 1.14 grams gold. The indicated resource contains 562,000 oz. gold; the inferred resource, 374,000 oz.

The deposits are hosted in intrusive diorite and granodiorite rocks associated with shear zones hosting quartz veining and minor sulphides.

St. Jude can earn up to a 65% interest in the Hwini-Butre concession through a combination of exploration expenditures and cash payments. Once vested, the government of Ghana will hold a 10% carried interest, and the junior’s joint-venture partner, Hwini-Butre Minerals, will hold the remaining 25% participating interest.

At the Subriso deposit, about 25 km to the north, St. Jude has completed more than 100 drill holes in order to establish a gold resource. Mineralization occurs in a shear zone in metavolcanics.

St. Jude can earn a 60.125% participating interest in the property by advancing it to the feasibility stage. Joint-venture partner Fairstar Explorations (FFR-T) retains a 22.4% participating stake in the concession, and a local Ghanaian firm retains a 7.5% carried interest. A 10% carried interest is held by the government of Ghana.