Golden Band Resources Inc. (GBN:TSXV) is pleased to announce the start of the 2008 winter exploration drilling program on its La Ronge gold belt projects in northern Saskatchewan.
This aggressive program is designed to upgrade and increase the Company's higher-grade gold resources, including those near the Jolu mill, and to test a very strong soil-gas-hydrocarbon (SGH) anomaly near the Company's 100%-owned Golden Heart deposit.
The winter drill program will be a minimum of 4,000 metres (m) and is expected to be completed by late March, 2008. Targets for the program are the 100%-owned Decade, Birch Crossing, and Kaslo gold deposits, and the soil gas hydrocarbon anomaly west of the Golden Heart gold deposit.
Decade Mine
The winter drilling program has begun at the former Decade gold mine which is located 275 m from the Company's Jolu gold mill and 600 m from the former Jolu gold mine, all 100%-owned by Golden Band (see previous news release of November 6, 2007). An expanded geological data recompilation by Golden Band of the historical Decade mine workings and drillhole databases indicates that a shallow, high-grade gold zone may exist just north of the former underground mine workings. Reported grades of up to 50 g/t Au over 7.77 m downhole (drillhole No. 7) with assays as high as 284 g/t Au over 1.82 m (drillhole No. 46) are beyond the mined-out areas. The intent of this winter's 1,030 m (15 drillholes) drill program is to confirm the existence of this high-grade gold mineralization at 25 m drill spacings so a mineral resource can be determined if warranted by the results. Given the closeness to the Jolu mill, any appreciable gold resources could factor into the Company's near-term plans for gold production.
Birch Crossing and Kaslo Deposits
A recently completed NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Birch Crossing deposit (see press release dated December 17, 2007) states an inferred category mineral resource of 536,300 tonnes grading 5.11 g/t Au (88,100 ounces of gold). The intent of this winter's 1,500 m drill program at Birch Crossing is to expand this higher-grade resource so as to maximize its potential future contribution to the Company's gold production plans (see news release dated January 15, 2008 regarding the updated scoping study). A 400 m drill program is also planned on the Kaslo gold deposit (700-800 m west of Birch Crossing) to determine if the high-grade Red Cube Zone style of gold mineralization seen at Birch Crossing and the Niko deposit continues into the Kaslo deposit.
Soil Gas Hydrocarbon Anomaly - Golden Heart Deposit Area
This winter's drilling will follow-up the very strong soil gas hydrocarbon (SGH) anomaly obtained from sampling done adjacent to the Golden Heart deposit in the summer of 2007 (see news release of October 10, 2007). A total of 1,500 m of drilling are planned. The objective is to determine if the large (350 m x 200 m) and very strong SGH response (rated 6 on a maximum scale of 6), is indicative of significant gold mineralization in the bedrock beneath the relatively thick overburden and swamp along the topographic low associated with the Byer's Fault.
The SGH anomaly is 200-300 m west of Golden Heart and 300-400 m southeast of another gold mineralized area called the A Zone. Golden Heart (known previously as the Weedy B and C Zones) and the A Zone were first identified in 1948. Drilling led by Ronald Netolitzky (Golden Band's Chairman) in the 1980's on the Golden Heart deposit reported a number high-grade gold intersections, such as 9.7 g/t Au / 5.0 m (W83-003), 11.5 g/t Au / 3.0 m (W83-020), 29.7 g/t Au / 2.5 m (W83-022), and 13.2 g/t Au / 6.4 m (W83-024). Based on drilling completed up-to 1997, the Golden Heart gold deposit is estimated to contain a measured and indicated resource of 4.49 million tonnes averaging 1.8 g/t gold (259,900 ounces) at a cut-off grade of 1.0 g/t gold. An additional 598,800 tonnes grading 1.66 g/t gold (31,900 ounces) is classified as inferred (see news release of April 6, 2006).
There is very little historical drilling between Golden Heart (B & C Zones) and the A Zone, but one drillhole (WD84-40) that is coincident with the northeastern edge of the SGH anomaly had two intersections of 29.9 g/t Au over 0.9 m and 10.0 g/t Au over 1 m. The SGH anomaly is otherwise untested by drilling. A Wacker drill basal till sampling program done in 1983 over 1,200 metres along the trend of the Byer's Fault between Golden Heart and the A Zone also returned a number of strong gold anomalies of up to 968 parts per billion (ppb) gold. In addition to the SGH anomaly being along the Byers trend, it also coincides with a contact between intrusive and volcanic rocks. Both are favourable controls for gold-hosted mineralization in the region. -- www.cnxmarketlink.com
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