St. Jude boosts Hwini-Butre interest to 90%

Vancouver — St. Jude Resources (SJD-V) has served notice that it intends to exercise its call option on Crew Gold’s (CRU-T) 25% interest in the Hwini-Butre gold project in western Ghana. It is also acquiring the 10% held by the original Ghanaian property vendor, to hold a full 90% interest.

The Crew Gold deal would solve a legal dispute that clouded ownership of the project, and give St. Jude an 80% interest in the property.

Last year, a judgment was issued against Crew Gold relating to its title to Hwini-Butre. St. Jude, the project operator, had been earning up to a 65% interest from Crew by completing the required exploration expenditures.

St. Jude would issue US$5 million in shares to Crew for the purchase. The 3 million shares would be subject to a 4-month hold period. After that, two-thirds of the shares become free-trading, with the remaining one-third subject to a 12-month holding period.

Subsequent to the Crew Gold deal, St. Jude reached an agreement to acquire the remaining 10% interest from original Ghanaian property vendor, B.D. Goldfields, for US$2 million, in four instalments. With the purchase, St. Jude would hold a 90% interest in the concession, with the Ghanaian government owning the other 10%.

Recent deep drilling at Hwini-Butre intersected significant gold mineralization on the Adoikrom and Father Brown deposits, opening the project’s depth potential. The nine holes encountered 2- to 13-metre wide mineralized intervals grading between 2-13 grams gold per tonne.

The company is completing a feasibility study on Hwini-Butre and its adjacent Benso concession.

Mineral resource estimates conducted in 2004 tallied 5.9 million tonnes of measured and indicated resource grading 3.5 grams gold at Hwini-Butre (660,000 contained ounces). The study showed an additional 3.9 million tonnes of indicated eluvial resource averaging 1.4 grams gold (169,000 contained ounces).

The study also covered St. Jude’s Benso project, to the north, which has a measured and indicated resource of 5.3 million tonnes grading 2.9 grams gold (487,000 contained ounces).

With an increased interest in Hwini-Butre, St. Jude would have a significant contiguous land position hosting a combined in situ measured and indicated gold inventory of more than 1.3 million oz. on western Ghana’s Ashanti gold belt. Of note, Newmont Mining (NEM-N) has emerged as a large land holder in the area, straddling significant portions of St. Jude’s concessions.