St. Andrew drills deep gold at Holloway

Vancouver – Underground drilling at St. Andrew Goldfields (SAS-T) operating Holloway mine has returned high-grade gold intercepts in the Smoke Deep zone as the company works towards a resource estimate on the zone.

The Smoke zone is located halfway between the Lightning zone to the west and the Blacktop zone to the east. The Lightning zone saw 900,000 oz. gold produced between 1994 and 2004 by Noranda, Battle Mountain Gold and Newmont. St. Andrew acquired Newmont’s interest in the northern Ontario mine in late 2006 as well as the nearby historic Holt mine.

With the restart of production at Holloway last October, St. Andrew was able to launch a phase one, 3,000-metre 10-hole underground exploration program from the 550-metre drift level. The program was a follow-up on the initial drilling of the Smoke Deep zone in late 2007.

Results from the first program included hole 640 that cut a true width of 5.6 metres grading 17.58 grams gold per tonne, hole 650 that hit a true width of 11 metres carrying 3.24 grams gold and hole 649 that hit a true width of 4.2 metres carrying 10.17 grams gold.

The phase two program, launched to better define the distribution of the gold mineralization in the zone, has returned further high-grade results.

Hole 654 cut a true width of 35 metres carrying 5.83 grams gold from 244 metres downhole. Hole 664 cut a true width of 101.7 metres averaging 4.4 grams gold from 245 metres. Hole 661 hit a true width of 3.6 metres grading 5.72 grams gold from 364 metres downhole.

Mineralization in the Smoke Deep zone occurs in highly silicified and albitized mafic volcanic rocks with approximately 5% disseminated pyrite mineralization. The zone is estimated to be at least 500m along strike and 300 metres down dip. The company expects to release an estimate of mineral resources for the zone by the end of the second quarter.

The company has also been exploring the Deep Thunder zone, roughly 1 km east of the currently mined Blacktop zone. A 9,200-metre drilling program is underway on the site, with preliminary results available on the first 6 holes totaling 6,500 metres of drilling.

Hole 7 hit 14.1 metres averaging 4.09 grams gold; Hole 6 cut 3 metres grading 5.3 grams gold; hole 4 intersected 1.5 metres averaging 7.23 grams gold and then a further 1.8 metres averaging 9.48 grams gold and hole 2 cut 1.6 metres carrying 4.99 grams gold, all from somewhere between 800 and 1100 metres depth.

The Holloway mine current hosts reserves of 639,000 tonnes grading 5.9 grams gold. The company’s Hislop project hosts 1.91 million reserve tonnes grading 2.3 grams gold and its Holt project contains 2.68 million tonnes grading 5.6 grams gold, both of which are in development.

The company controls a 120-km-long land package that spans from Timmins to the Quebec border, with the Holloway mine sitting on the eastern portion.

St. Andrew Goldfields stock price has made a fairly steady climb from 29¢ a year ago to the 52-week closing high of $1.31 it reached on the latest results. The company has 328 million shares outstanding.