Monday, 5 December 2011

St Andrew returns further encouraging results from Smoke Deep, to ramp up production

St Andrew Goldfields (TSE:SAS) announced Monday additional results from the definition drilling program at the now-producing Smoke Deep Zone, part of its Holloway Mine - one of its three producing mines in the Timmins Mining District of northeastern Ontario.
The 20,000 metre definition drill program began in May of this year and is expected to be completed by year end, the company said.
Highlights of the latest drilling includes 3.52 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold over 17.1 metres in hole 780-541; 9.23 g/t gold over 4.1 metres in hole 780-575; and 6.63 g/t gold over 10.3 metres, including 22.41 g/t gold over 1.0 metre in hole 780-609.
In addition, hole 780-624 returned 5.51 g/t gold over 8.4 metres, including 20.2 g/t gold over 0.5 metres, while hole 780-632 intersected 5.06 g/t gold over 6.2 metres.
The 20,000 metre definition drilling program, which is designed to reduce the drill spacing from approximately 25 by 50 metres to approximately 15 by 15 metres, will be used to update mineral resources and reserves at year-end, the company said.
"We are encouraged by the results from the ongoing definition drilling program at Smoke Deep, and are pleased to announce that production from this zone has commenced earlier this quarter," said president and CEO Jacques Perron.

"We continue to potentially expand the known mineral resources in areas where we have limited drill information, and these recent results continue to be positive.

"We will ramp up production from Smoke Deep over the next few quarters and look forward to commencing approximately 5,000 metres of exploration diamond drilling early in the new-year to test the eastern down plunge extension of the zone."

The current Smoke Deep resource is based on 32 underground holes drilled from the 550m Level drift. So far, 117 drill holes from the 780m Level decline ramp have been completed, and continue to return "encouraging" results that coincide with earlier drilling, the company said.

Drilling to date also appears to have expanded the zone of higher grade gold mineralization within the low grade envelope, St Andrew said.

Smoke Deep is situated one kilometre east of the Lightning Zone, and approximately one kilometre west of the Blacktop Zone at the property. A $6 million development program approved in June of last year involved the construction of a 1.2 kilometre underground ramp from the neighbouring Lightning Zone to provide production access to Smoke Deep, as well as additional exploration access where the zone remains open along strike, down dip and eastwards down plunge.

Gold mineralization in the Smoke Deep area varies in thickness from less than one metre to up to approximately 20 metres, with the overall zone extending approximately 500 metres east-southeast along strike, and dipping steeply to the south over a vertical distance of around 350 metres.

Currently, Smoke Deep has an inferred resource of 747,000 tonnes grading 5.83 g/t gold, for a total of 140,000 ounces of gold.
St Andrew is a gold mining and exploration company with an extensive land package in the Timmins mining district, northeastern Ontario, which lies within the Abitibi greenstone belt.

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