Asquith drills Roandji gold property

Asquith Resources (ASQH-C) and Axmin, a privately held exploration company, have released preliminary results from infill drilling on the 2,000-sq-km Roandji gold property, which occupies an Archean greenstone belt in the Central African Republic.

Twelve fences of reverse-circulation (RC) holes were completed along a 1,280-metre section of a northerly trending geochemical anomaly. The program was designed to follow up drilling conducted in the fall of 1999.

Angled at 50, the holes returned gold values ranging from 1.3 to 19.5 grams per tonne over boring lengths of between 2 and 20 metres. Mineralized intersections typically encountered higher-grade intervals over shorter lengths.

In drill hole 157, Asquith intersected 5 metres grading 6.3 grams gold, including 21.1 grams over 1 metre. A second drill hole, no. 140, cut 14 metres grading 19.5 grams gold, including 122.3 grams over 2 metres. Two other drill holes showed similar high-grade stretches:

– hole 126 intersected 13 metres grading 6.9 grams gold, including an interval that graded 15.8 grams over 5 metres; while

– hole 106 cut 10 metres grading 4.7 grams gold, including a 1-metre stretch with 32.5 grams.

In June 1999, Axmin inked a deal with Asquith to earn a 60% interest in Roandji. Axmin funded 3,520 metres of drilling (roughly 1,000 more than it needed to exercise its option) and will exercise warrants for a million shares of Asquith at $1 per share.