Golden Star Resources announced a new discovery along the Ashanti Trend at its Prestea concession in West Africa

GOLD MINING NEWS - On a day when shares of most gold mining companies traded lower alongside the weaker gold price, Golden Star Resources (GSS) bucked the trend by rallying nearly 1% following the company’s announcement of a new discovery in West Africa. The U.S.-based gold mining company reported drill results from a new discovery along the Ashanti Trend at the company’s Prestea concession in southwest Ghana. Highlights from the discovery include hole BUVTDD013, which intersected 3.71 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold across 26.3 meters, and a second hole that hit a 23.6 meter intercept grading 4.03 g/t of gold.

Golden Star Resources went on to note that the new discovery outcrops on surface on section 17000 N, 300 meters south of the southernmost boundary of the currently active Buesichem pit - located six kilometers south of the company’s Bogoso processing facility in Ghana. In addition, the gold mining company noted that the strong VTEM geophysical conductor is open to the south and extends below the oxide pits at Beposo, which was mined in 2002-2003, but has yet to be tested for sulfide potential below. Golden Star is presently evaluating the potential for additional drilling in order to test this target to the south.

Mitch Wasel, VP of Exploration at Golden Star, commented that “The discovery of an extensive and totally new deposit in a historically mined area such as Buesichem is a testament to the continued potential for further discoveries along the Ashanti Trend particularly through the application of the VTEM technology. This discovery could have a significant impact on the optimization and design of the Buesichem pit. Drilling is still on-going and a resource estimation exercise is expected to be undertaken in the second half of this year to evaluate the impact of this new discovery.”

The U.S.-based gold miner noted that this new discovery occurred as a result of the ongoing drill program testing the VTEM geophysical targets near the company’s operating pits, which began in the fourth quarter of 2009. Golden Star Resources stated that a total of 28,000 meters of drilling has been budgeted for the VTEM drilling program in 2010, and this will include drilling along both the Prestea and Bogoso concessions in Ghana.

Golden Star Resources is an international gold mining and exploration company with operations in Ghana, West Africa and Brazil, South America. Golden Star owns controlling interests in several gold properties in southwest Ghana, including the Bogoso/Prestea and Wassa mines. In morning trading shares of GSS were higher by $0.03 to $3.38 in spite of the gold price falling $8.26 to $1,131.39 per ounce.