Cassidy cuts Guinean gold

Vancouver A second bout of drilling by Cassidy Gold (CDY-V) has confirmed the high-grade nature of the Kouroussa property in Guinea, West Africa.

Last year, the Kamloops, BC-based junior initially tested three structural targets on the Koe Koe South zone. The drilling lead to the discovery of two gold-bearing vein systems. Based on the promising results Cassidy drilled an additional eleven holes into the property.

In the first round of drilling, holes 4 through 6 tested the SW vein, which is marked at surface by a northwest trending, 500-metre long trench dug by artisanal miners several centuries ago. The best results came in hole 4, which was collared in the centre of the vein trend and returned 16.87 grams gold per tonne over an estimated true width of 8 metres.

The mineralization is hosted in mafic metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks, apparently of Birimian age. Birimian lithologies host most of the major gold deposits of West Africa including Obuasi, Sadiola, and Siguiri.

In the newly completed round of drilling, Cassidy punched another 9 holes into the vein, now called the Sanu Filanan vein trend. Holes 7 through 9 tested the mineralization cut in hole 4 but from the southwest side down to depths of 150 metres. The holes failed to yield bonanza gold graded returning 1.56 grams gold over 3.2 metres, 3.63 grams gold over 2.8 metres and 1.9 grams gold over 4.2 metres, respectively.

Hole 12 was collared 90 metres northeast of hole 4. This hole cut 3.43 grams gold over 42.4 metres, including a higher-grade section averaging 19.7 grams gold over 3.5 metres.

Hole 5 was drilled 40 metres southeast of hole 4 and cut 100.9 grams gold over 3.52 metres. Included in this section was a 0.69 metre interval-yielding 372 grams gold. Moving another 100 metres southeast, hole 6 yielded 9.16 grams gold over 3.24 metres. Holes 11 and 15 were drilled in between the two holes returning 60 grams gold over 2.83 metres and 2.08 grams gold over 1.4 metres, respectively.

Moving 110 metres southeast of hole 11, hole 10 returned 3.54 grams gold over 24.4 metres, including a higher grade section running 15.34 grams gold over 3.53 metres.

Holes 13 and 14 tested the Sanu Filanan trend some 150 and 330 metres northwest of hole 12 but returned only anomalous values of up to 0.55 gram gold over 10.6 metres.

Hole 3 targeted the EW vein, now dubbed the Sanu Folo vein trend, where artisanal workings occur along a 500-metre east-west trend. The hole hit mineralized saprolite at 33.5 metres downhole yielding 7.07 grams gold per tonne over 1.9 metres. Hole 17 targeted the east end of the trend yielding 7.1 grams gold over 1.9 metres in saprolite and 9.6 grams gold over 0.71 metre lower down the hole in sulphide material.

Some 1.2 km east northeast of the Sanu Filanan vein trend, hole 16 tested the Koe Koe River prospect but failed to return any significant values.

Cassidy aims to resume drilling these targets in a few weeks, as well as launching a field program designed to define new prospects within the Sodyanfe soil anomaly located 1-km to the northwest. The gold-in-soil anomaly is defined by 213 samples collected on a 25-by-50 metre spaced grid. These samples yielded an average of 0.49 grams gold with the best value returning 8.63 grams gold. The most promising values occur in the southern portion of the anomaly where two lines averaged 1.06 grams gold over 450 metres and 0.92 gram gold over 250 metres.

The Kouroussa property lies 570 km east of the capital, Conakry, on a paved highway, some 27 km north of Semafo’s Kiniero mine. Previous operators collected some 2,776 soil samples over a 3.2 square km part of the property yielding three separate anomalies averaging 342 parts per billion gold.

Along with Semafo’s mine, Guinea two main gold producers are Ashanti Goldfields 85% held Societe Ashanti de Guinee (SAG), and Societe Miniere de Dinguiraye (SMD). SAG’s Siguiri mine lies in the northeastern part of the country some 800 km from Conakry. The operation produced 283,199 oz of gold in 2001and holds reserves of 56.7 million tonnes grading 1.2 grams gold.

SMD, which is 85% owned by Kenor ASA of Norway and 15% by the Guinea government, operates the Lero-Karta mine in northern Guinea. The Lero Karta Mine currently produces over 100,000 oz of gold per year from a heap leach operation. Total resources stand at 15.1 million tonnes grading 2.4 grams gold. The company has also outlined an indicated and inferred resource of 32.6 million tonnes grading 1.4 grams gold at Fayalala, about 10 km away.

Semafo’s operation was officially opened in April 2002 at a cost of US$12.4 million. The Kiniero mine hosts a proven and probable reserve base of 866,000 tonnes grading 6.06 grams gold, plus a measured and indicated resource of 1.5 million tonnes grading 6.80 grams gold.