Vancouver — The first drill holes on Red Back Mining’s (RBI-T, RBIFF-O) Abodoabo prospect, in southwestern Ghana, are substantiating previous trench results from the gold project.
An 11-hole, 1,500-metre, reverse-circulation (RC) drilling program tested several hundred metres of strike at Abodoabo, returning evidence of pervasive mineralization to depth, including the following:
* hole CHRC 715 intersected 10 metres (from 10 metres down-hole) grading 2.4 grams gold per tonne, and a number of deeper mineralized intercepts including 3 metres of 3.6 grams gold;
* hole CHRC 720 cut 18 metres (from 91 metres depth) grading 2.8 grams gold, including 3 metres of 9.7 grams gold, and a deeper 3-metre section averaging 2 grams gold;
* hole CHRC 723 returned a 23-metre intercept (from 127 metres) grading 2.8 grams gold.
Gold mineralization at Abodoabo is hosted in strongly sheared phyllitic sediments and in quartz porphyry intrusives within the Archean greenstone environment. The project is located just east of the main contact of Birimian metavolcanics and metasediments and has a similar structural setting to AngloGold Ashanti’s (AU-N) Bibiani mine, with historic gold production of 4 million oz., located 15 km north.
Red Back plans to continue drilling at Abodoabo with the goal of developing an initial resource estimate.
The discovery is located 5 km north of the company’s 90%-owned Chirano processing plant, which poured its first gold in late 2005. The Chirano gold project hosts proven and probable reserves of 17.8 million tonnes grading 1.9 grams gold. Red Back anticipates average annual output of about 123,000 oz. gold over an initial 8.5-year mine life. Exploration has focused on expanding and identifying new zones of gold mineralization close to Chirano.
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