Partners declare Stenpad values unreliable

“Unreliable” is how joint-Venture partners Golden Rule Resources (GNU-T) and Hixon Gold Resources (HXG-V) are describing the trenching and soil-sampling values from their previous work at the troubled Stenpad gold property in Ghana.

The company reported assay results from trench re-sampling, as well as from new trench sampling using the “new sampling protocol” adopted in March. Now, 1-Metre intervals are channel-sampled to produce about 12 kg of material.

Sample splits averaging 4 kg are crushed and pulverized; then, 50 gram splits are fire assayed at SGS Laboratory Services in Ghana and at Intertek Testing Services in Vancouver. Most of the Agyakra No. 1 samples were also analyzed by ITS for gold using metallic-sieve analysis.

The companies say that while gold values in the trenches are of interest, most of the results are “considerably lower” than those obtained by the partners during their previous sampling and therefore “indicate that the earlier results are unreliable.”

The companies also state that the metallic-sieve analysis indicates that the poor sample reproducibility within the new samples is, in many instances, caused by the presence of particulate gold.

Checks of soil-sampling conducted by the partners produced results that are “significantly less than the very high results” previously announced from reconnaissance sampling. Samples were analyzed at SGS in Ghana and at Intertek Testing Services (Ghana) in Obuasi.

The companies state that, while some gold-in-soil anomalies exist, check soil-sampling of 175 sites on seven grid lines “did not duplicate the previous results, indicating that the earlier results are unreliable.” The partners say they will resample the gold-in-soil using a new protocol.

Golden Rule and Hixon Gold have also completed the first phase of a 3,000-Metre diamond drill program at Stenpad. Six holes totalling 753 metres were drilled, and assay results have been reported from the first two holes.

The first hole, drilled to a depth of 150 metres, intersected a projected vertical extension of the mineralized quartz veins exposed in the Agyakra No.

1 trench. However, the company reports that the recovery over four identified gold-Mineralized zones was unacceptable, often being considerably less than 50% within quartz veins.

The second hole missed its target and produced insignificant gold results.

The partners have hired Associated Mining Consultants (AMCL) to provide a technical assessment report for exploration at Stenpad, including an interim report that is expected shortly.

CME (Ghana), which was originally retained by the Ghana Minerals Commission, has been engaged by Hixon Gold to conduct an independent geological evaluation and qualifying report on the property.