Cantex awaits assays for Yemen prospects

Assays from drilling carried out on two prospects in northwestern Yemen — one gold, the other polymetallic — are expected this month, reports Cantex Mine Development (CD-V).

The company, run by geologist Charles Fipke, drilled 13 holes on the Al Hariqah gold prospect and two on the Suwar polymetallic prospect. A Vancouver-based lab is performing the assays.

At Al Hariqah, drilling was concentrated on a zone 3.2 km long by 60 metres wide. So far, the Kelowna, B.C.-based junior has had to rely on visual estimates to guide its work.

The latest reports from holes 12 and 13 indicate that they were collared on the same pad and reached a final depth of 162.5 and 120 metres, respectively.

Hole 12 was inclined at an angle of minus 55 and drilled toward the west. Cantex intersected 45 metres of unmineralized schists followed by 117.5 metres of “favourably mineralized stockwork.”

Hole 13 was inclined at minus 55 and drilled toward the east. Reports indicate that this hole intersected an unmineralized diorite dyke that appears to trend subparallel to the hole. The hole was terminated at 120 metres.

The gold is hosted in flat-lying quartz veins and stockworks and has been traced over 3 km. Cantex says the property features baseball- and basketball-sized pods of high-grade mineralization and points out that the coarse gold is difficult to sample and analyze; grades ranging from 3 to 186 grams per tonne have been taken from the same pod.

The continuous mineralization reported in earlier reverse-circulation drill cuttings from Al Hariqah are said to consist of moderate-to-intense silicification with sericite alteration that is occasionally accompanied by pyrite and arsenopyrite.

Chief Geologist John Churchill says holes 1 through 9 were continuously mineralized, except for minor intersections of a local quartz diorite at the bottom of holes 1 and 3 and minor intersections of unmineralized dykes.

Since the surface exposures are intensely weathered and eroded, the target may be amenable to heap leaching. Metallurgical and engineering tests will endeavour to determine as much.

Cantex holds ground totalling 41,000 sq. km in the region, and although Al Hariqah is its flagship project, the company is exploring two other prospects: Suwar, for copper-nickel-cobalt mineralization and platinum group metals; and Dhi Bin, for zinc-lead-silver mineralization.

Suwar

At Suwar, Cantex geologists report widespread sulphide disseminations with visual estimates as high as 30% sulphides over 1.7 metres in hole 1. Hole 2, collared 50 metres to the northeast, cut a 0.9-metre section containing 80% sulphides. The holes were designed to test the projection of a strong induced-polarization (IP) target beneath a geochemical anomaly.

Cantex has released a polished thin section report on hole 1. Vancouver Petrographics identified 20-25% pyrrhotite, 5-7% pentlandite and 3-5% chalcopyrite, based on a small section of core gathered at a down-hole depth of 57 metres. Subsequent electron microprobe work by a Kelowna-based company identified fracture fillings of violarite at the same depth. Violarite is a nickel-iron-cobalt sulphide commonly found in copper-nickel deposits in Western Australia. Pentlandite, a nickel-iron sulphide, was also identified.

Four more holes are to be drilled at Suwar. However, owing to the rugged topography, access to the site of a large IP anomaly is unavailable. Cantex may decide to hit the target from an alternative collar location.

To date, drilling has tested the central 350 metres of the 900-metre-long Suwar anomaly. Cantex plans to drill at least one diamond drill hole at the southern end of the anomaly, where anomalous platinum group metal assays were obtained from surface samples.

Dhi Bin

Plans to drill the Dhi Bin prospect have been put on hold pending assay results from Al Hariqah. Zinc-lead-silver mineralization at Dhi Bin is discontinuously exposed along the margins of a carbonate plateau.

Results from grab samples collected along the plateau assayed as high as 10.32% zinc and 0.44% lead from a 1.5-by-1.5-metre panel. IP surveys are under way in an effort to define drill targets.