Rift cleared to explore Ugandan property

Junior Rift Resources (RIF-V) has been granted a second exclusive prospecting licence in Uganda.

The new licence covers 3,374 sq. km, bringing the area of Rift’s licensed holdings in the country to 10,734 sq. km. Within the new area lies a 230-km-long portion of the Aswa shear belt.

Aswa is reported to be the most extensive shear zone of Uganda’a Precambrian formations, possibly representing the contact between the Mozambican mobile belt and the Central African craton. The shear belt is made up of highly foliated rocks with a mylonitic inner zone.

Rift officials suspect the Aswa belt represents the western flank of the Karamoja gold field, where both alluvial and primary gold have been mined.

The Ugandan geological survey reports that gold showings at two locations on Rift’s property appear to be associated with sheared granite-metasediment contacts.

The company is expected to announce plans for the exploration of its Ugandan properties.

Meanwhile, Rift has received regulatory approval for a previously announced joint venture with United Kingdom-based Reunion Mining at the Silobela gold project in central Zimbabwe. In order to earn a half interest in the project, Rift issued 16,023 shares to Reunion, and it has the option to contribute US$1.5 million to exploration programs over a 3-year period.

Reunion joined the Silobela project in 1991, before which time the property received little exploration. Many companies were deterred by the area’s unconsolidated sands, which cover roughly half the property. Traditionally, exploration companies have explored areas where more bedrock is exposed.

Rift and Reunion plan to carry out mapping, geochemical sampling, trenching and geophysical surveying in an effort to test several gold-in-soil anomalies previously outlined.