Pelangio pops on initial results from Ghana (September 27, 2010)

VANCOUVER — Just six weeks after signing an earn-in deal for the Manfo gold property in Ghana, Pelangio Exploration (PX-V) has pulled several near-surface, high-grade gold intercepts from two zones at the site and investors have rewarded the company with a healthy share price boost.

In early August, Pelangio inked a deal with a private Ghanaian company to earn a 100% interest in the three contiguous concessions that comprise the 100-sq.-km Manfo property. The deal followed a due diligence period that saw Pelangio sample, map and trench the five geochemically anomalous zones at Manfo. The company’s thorough due diligence efforts meant it was ready to drill as soon as the papers were signed.

The company immediately embarked on a 16-hole drill program probing four of the five geochem anomalies. Results from the first six holes of that program indicate Pelangio found a good prospect.

The company punched four holes into a target called Pokukrom West, which revealed itself through a gold-in-soil anomaly measuring just 200 metres by 150 metres. Hole 83 returned 28 metres grading 4.18 grams gold per tonne, starting 16 metres downhole and including 12 metres of 8 grams gold. Nearby, hole 84 cut 12 metres carrying 8.6 grams gold, starting 27 metres downhole.

These first hits indicate a north-northwest striking zone with a steep eastward dip. Gold is found in strongly silicified pyritic sediments crosscut by veinlets of quartz ankerite.

Results are still pending from two further holes collared south along strike.

The results from Pokukrom West came just nine days after Pelangio released its first set of results from Manfo. Those results came from the Nfante West prospect, which is 5 km southwest of Pokukrom and comprises a gold-in-soil anomaly stretching along 700 metres strike and across 150 metres width.

Drills at Nfante West encountered broad zones of lower-grade gold, indicating potential for a bulk-tonnage deposit. The best hit came from hole 79, which returned 61 metres grading 1.5 grams gold, starting 16 metres downhole and including 18 metres of 3 grams gold. Other intercepts include 17 metres of 0.67 gram gold, 40 metres of 0.55 gram gold, and 40 metres of 0.91 gram gold.

Pelangio says the gold at Nfante West occurs in zones of hydrothermal silica-sericite alteration and pyrite stockworking. The gold mineralization at Red Back Mining’s (RBI-T, RBIFF-O) Chirano gold mine, 50 km to the south on the same fault network, is similar.

Chirano is not the only gold mine close to the Manfo property. Newmont Mining’s (NMC-T, NEM-N) Ahafo mine is just 14 km north. The mines, and the Manfo property, sit along the Sefwi gold belt, one of the largest of the Ghanaian Birimianage greenstone belts.

Asked about how Pelangio found the property, company president and CEO Ingrid Hibbard forwarded credit to the company’s exploration manager.

“We acquired it from the local owners,” she said. “But the real story for us is that we’ve been operating there for five years now and we’ve really built up a good team. We recently promoted a local fellow to be our exploration manager, a really talented local fellow named Sam Torkornoo, and he’s who brought us the project.”

Manfo has seen considerable historical exploration by Newmont and AngloGold Ashanti (AU-N, ANG-J), among others. Hibbard said Pelangio was able to track down some of the historic results but could not obtain enough confirmation to publish the historic data. The effort did, however, give the company “hints” of where to go.

A major northeast-trending fault corridor some 3 km wide runs along the east side of the Manfo property, serving as a regional contact between the greenstone volcano-sedimentary package to the west and a regional synvolcanic intrusive to the east. All five of the geochemical targets at Manfo lie within this fault corridor.

And the company will soon have more data to add to this general geological picture. While awaiting the results of its drill results, Pelangio plans to run an airborne geophysical survey of the large property.

Pelangio has another gold project in Ghana, known as Obuasi, which is also part of the Ashanti gold belt. The company completed its first drill program at the site in late 2009; it produced many intercepts with anomalous gold but no major intercepts. Hibbard said the company was nevertheless very pleased with the results from a technical perspective.

And the company also holds some half-dozen gold projects in Ontario, where it has experienced some success. In early 2007, Pelangio sold the Detour Lake project to Detour Gold (DGC-T), which has since turned the 3.4-million-oz. resource into an 11.4-million-oz. reserve. Pelangio acquired 1 million Detour shares in the transaction and intermittent sales of those shares have provided the company with significant cash flow.

“We’re very proud of what we did at Detour and what Detour Gold and Gerald (Panneton) are continuing to do there,” Hibbard said. “It’s a great asset and it’s going to be great for northern Ontario and for Canada.”

Hibbard pointed out that Pelangio’s experience with Detour in Ontario is useful in Ghana, as the projects are similar. Detour was a large land package on the Abitibi greenstone belt with lots of showings and limited regional exploration beyond the site’s old mine workings. Manfo is much the same — a large land package on a greenstone belt with lots of promise and little data.

Hibbard also sees similarities between the projects on a personnel level: “One of the things I really want to stress is how great Ghana is to work in,” Hibbard said. “It is very much like Canada in that you can find good mining people — really talented, experienced people.”

News of the results from Pokukrom West propelled Pelangio’s share price upwards: the junior gained 13¢ or 27% in a day to reach 62¢. In June, the company’s shares traded as low as 16¢.

“It’s been a good couple of days,” said Hibbard.

At the end of June, Pelangio had $6.1 million in the bank.