TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Ontario-focused gold producer St Andrew Goldfields (SAS), which operates the Holt, Holloway and Hislop mines in the Timmins mining district of north-eastern Ontario, which lies within the world famous Abitibi greenstone belt, on Tuesday reported positive results from an ongoing drilling campaign at the Smoke Deep zone at the Holloway mine.

Among the highlights of the campaign that started earlier this year from underground platforms, were hole 905-05 that returned 13.07 g/t of gold over 31.6 m; hole 905-21 that returned 11.1 g/t of gold over 8.9 m and hole 945-03, which returned 18.35 g/t of gold over 2.2 m.

“These recent Smoke Deep results are positive and encouraging. As the reserve base is limited, the down dip extension of Smoke Deep is significant and could potentially extend the mine life at Holloway,” SAS president and CEO Duncan Middlemiss said in a statement.

Underground drilling took place on the 865 m level, 905 m level, 925 m level and most recently the 945 m level, to test for the mineralised extensions of the zone further to the east, west and down dip. The drill programme had been successful and drilling continued to extend the Smoke Deep deposit along strike to the east.

SAS said the latest drilling campaign had effectively extended the known mineralised strike length of the deposit by about 200 m to the east for a total strike length of 500 m.

In July 2013, a surface drill tested the down dip and easterly plunge component of the zone. Surface hole GH13-027 returned 4.94 g/t of gold over 4.1 m, including 6.21 g/t of gold over 2.8 m.

This intersection was typical of Smoke Deep mineralisation, associated with the mafic volcanic and ultramafic volcanic contact. It was located about 375 m directly east of the current Smoke Deep resource model and 160 m below the current drill platform elevation.

SAS noted that drilling had demonstrated that the Smoke Deep mineralisation appeared to be wider, possessed a stronger alteration halo, was more consistent in grade and displayed a 20° change in azimuth to the east at depth.

SAS recently extended the 945 m level hangingwall drill drift both to the east and west to provide a drill platform, with drilling in progress to test for the mineralised extensions to the east, west and at depth.

For the first quarter ended March 31, SAS produced 24 361 oz of gold. The company expected to produce between 75 000 oz to 85 000 oz of gold this year, after recording a record 99 548 oz of gold in 2013.