St. Jude cuts more gold at Benso (January 26, 2004)

Vancouver — St. Jude Resources (SJD-V) has released more encouraging drill results from the Benso concession in Ghana, West Africa.

Drilling on the G zone has defined that mineralization strikes for over 300 metres and up to 100 metres in depth. Drilling highlights from ongoing exploration are as follows;

• Hole SJB-178 cut 12 metres averaging 1.18 grams gold, starting 20 metres down-hole. This included a 2-metre interval that averaged 2.11 grams gold and a 5-metre section that cut 1.67 grams gold.
• Hole SJB-179 cut 8 metres averaging 2.65 grams gold, starting 37 metres down-hole.
• Hole SJB-180 cut 3 metres averaging 13.12 grams gold, starting 65 metres down-hole.
• Hole SJB-181 cut 14 metres averaging 5.16 grams gold, starting 65 metres down-hole.
• Hole SJB-182 cut 4 metres averaging 2.37 grams gold, starting 45 metres down-hole.
• Hole SJB-183 cut 6 metres averaging 2.53 grams gold starting 5 metres down-hole. This was followed by a 2-metre section that averaged 1.85 grams gold, starting 18 metres down-hole.

The Benso concession consists of three prospective target blocks, dubbed Amantin, Subriso and Chichiwelli. These blocks together cover over 42.8 sq. km of the Ashanti gold belt.

To date, St. Jude has focused its exploration on the Subriso block in the area of the historic Subriso gold mine. At Subriso, detailed geological, geochemical and geophysical studies have outlined two large north-striking parallel zones of surface mineralization.

These zones measure 2,500-to-3,000 metres long, and so far, only a small portion of each has been drill tested.

The results from over 20,000 metres of drilling (183 holes) at Benso, including the new G and I mineralized zones along with Subriso East, West and Central will be included in the upcoming initial resource estimate.

St. Jude holds three assets in West Africa, namely Hwini-Butre, Benso and Goulagou, and together they span more than 353 sq. km. The Benso concession lies 30 km south of Hwini-Butre, in the same structural zone as the Hwini-Butre deposits.

In 2002, an independent resource estimate by Watts Griffis & McOuat concluded that the Adoikrom, Father Brown and Dabokrom deposits at Hwini-Butre, hosted a total of 4.2 million tonnes grading 11.51 grams gold in the indicated category, and 1.7 million tonnes averaging 10.32 grams gold in the inferred category. An additional 5.6 million tonnes of inferred resource averaging 1.14 grams gold exist in eluvial and reworked surface material

The junior stands to earn a 65% interest in Hwini-Butre from Crew Development (CRU-T) by completing a feasibility study and paying Crew US$800,000. The government of Ghana holds a 10% carried interest.

Benso is a joint venture with Fairstar Explorations (FFR-T). St. Jude stands to earn a 60.125% interest in the project by submitting a feasibility study. The government of Ghana holds a 10% carried interest.