Etruscan inks West African deals

Etruscan Resources (EET-T) has inked a deal to purchase all of Diversified Minerals Resources’ (DMR) assets in Ivory Coast, West Africa.

Included is the Agbaou gold deposit, which hosts an independently reported indicated and inferred resource of 12.25 million tonnes averaging 2.2 grams gold per tonne for 847,00 oz. contained gold. The estimate employed a 1-gram cutoff and 18,000 metres of drilling. The deposit remains open at depth and along strike.

Etruscan can acquire DMR’s 88.4% interest in Goldivoire Sarl, which holds the Agbaou, Sirasso and Loho permits, and DMR’s 100% interest in the Hire permit by paying $350,000 in cash and issuing 2 million shares. The deal is subject to due diligence.

The contiguous Agbaou and Hire permits measure 850 sq. km and are located 200 km northwest of Abidjan. They are accessible by paved highway. The main deposit is within 10 km of the national power grid.

Etruscan plans to target high-grade zones at Agbaou. The company believes that these zones can significantly increase the overall grade of the deposit to about 5 grams per tonne. Selected drill results from the high-grades zones include:

• Hole 20 — 36.7 grams gold over 8 metres;
• Hole 97 — 25.5 grams gold over 10 metres;
• Hole 142 — 16.2 grams gold over 13 metres;
• Hole 130 — 16.3 grams gold over 10 metres;
• Hole 31 — 11.3 grams gold over 8 metres; and
• Hole 100 — 11.2 grams gold over 14 metres.

The Agbaou deposit lies in a well-defined regional shear zone that extends over 40 km across the entire permit. Limited exploration has taken place outside of the immediate deposit area.

The Hire permit hosts a previously mined, high-grade quartz vein system. Better results from drilling by DMR in one of the veins included: 11 metres averaging 8.6 grams; 8 metres of 5.2 grams; and 36 metres of 3.2 grams.

The early-stage Loho and Sirasso permits host several untested regional geochemical anomalies.

“We are extremely pleased with this opportunity for Etruscan to enter into Cote d’Ivoire,” says Gerald McConnell, Etruscan’s CEO. “This acquisition effectively doubles Etruscan’s gold inventory at a cost of less than $US1.00 per oz.”

Farther north, Etruscan, through a wholly owned subsidiary, has signed a mining convention with the Republic of Mali to explore and develop the 220-sq.-km Djelimangara permit, which is located immediately south of the Sadiola Hill gold mine. The permit in the Mali West shear zone is underlain by the same geological formations as Sadiola.

The only work carried out on Djelimangara was regional reconnaissance exploration by Barrick Gold (ABX-T) during the mid-1990s. This outlined a number of significant gold anomalies over the entire 9-km strike length of the main shear zone. The soil anomalies measure up to 2.5 km in strike length. Gold concentrations measure up to 2 grams.

Etruscan is compiling all the geological data and plans an exploration program at the end of this year’s rainy season.

Sadiola Hill is owned by AngloGold (AU-N), Iamgold (IMG-T) and the Malian government. It has reserves of 32.6 million tonnes grading 3.2 grams gold per tonne, with a total resource (including reserves) of 138.8 million tonnes grading 2 grams gold. Resources in smaller deposits near the Sadiola pit make up a further 9.9 million tonnes at an average grade of 2.4 grams per tonne.