St. Jude cuts bonanza grade at South Benso (August 12, 2002)

Vancouver — St. Jude Resources (SJD-V) and Montreal-based Fairstar Explorations (FFR-T) have cut bonanza-grade drill intersections at their jointly held South Benso concession in Ghana, West Africa.

Drilling at the Subriso Central target intersected 12 metres averaging 78.71 grams gold, starting at 70 metres down-hole, and included a 1-metre interval of 209.33 grams gold. The Subriso Central target is on the South Benso concession, which is adjacent to St. Jude’s 41.5-sq.-km Hwini-Butre concession.

In October 2000, St. Jude inked a deal to acquire up to a 60.125% participating interest in Fairstar’s South Benso concession, in return for cash and sufficient exploration to take the property to production. Fairstar holds a 25% interest, the Ghanaian government retains a 10% carried interest, and the remainder is held by the original licensee.

The property is underlain by volcanic and sedimentary rocks and is host to a major northeast-trending deformation zone which cuts across the property. In March of this year, after completing a 19-hole drilling campaign on the Subriso East zone and two prospects to the south, St. Jude kicked off an additional program of infill and step-out holes designed to expand the Subriso East zone and test the Subriso West target. Drilling identified a new zone of mineralization adjacent to, and in the footwall of, the Subriso West target. This new zone has been dubbed Subriso Central. Recent drill results are from the Subriso Central and Subriso West prospects. Drill results are as follows:

n Hole 56 intersected 2 metres averaging 3.36 grams gold starting at 28 metres down-hole;

n Hole 57 cut 10 metres averaging 4.22 grams gold starting at 4 metres down-hole.

n Hole 58 cut 2 metres averaging 38.24 grams gold starting 41 metres down-hole.

n Hole 59 cut 16 metres averaging 5.51 grams gold starting 71 metres down-hole.

n Hole 62 hit 12 metres that assayed 78.71 grams gold starting at 70 metres down-hole. This included a 4-metre section that averaged 228.07 grams gold, starting at 72 metres. In 1-metre intervals from 72 to 76 metres down-hole, the assays returned 52.8, 209.33, 567, and 83.15 grams gold per tonne, respectively.

n Hole 63 cut 10 metres averaging 14.87 grams gold starting at 64 metres down-hole. This included a 1-metre section of 109 grams gold.

n Hole 64 cut 2 metres that assayed 21.56 grams gold starting at 37 metres down-hole.

n Hole 66 intersected 11 metres averaging 2.29 grams gold starting at 63 metres down-hole.

n Hole 67 cut 6 metres grading 1.81 grams gold starting at 88 metres down-hole.

Meanwhile, St. Jude is advancing its Hwini-Butre concession, which hosts an indicated and inferred resource in three deposits: Adoikrom, Father Brown and Dabokrom. The resource calculation was performed by Watts Griffis & McOuat and amounts to 4.25 million tonnes grading 4.11 grams gold per tonne. The inferred portion of the resource weighs in at 1.7 million tonnes grading 3.01 grams gold. Mineralization occurs in an en echelon shear zone and vein system that cuts diorite-andesite-granodiorite rocks which trend subparallel to the Ashanti gold belt.