Bullman hits gold in first holes at Siguiri

VANCOUVER — Five months after acquiring the Siguiri project in its qualifying transaction, Bullman Minerals’ (TSXV: BUL) first holes into the West African project have returned good gold grades.

Siguiri is in northeast Guinea, covering part of a 60 km long, north-trending shear zone. The project comprises two blocks. The north block occurs along 16 km of the shear structure and includes four known deposits, while the less-explored south block covers another prospective part of the zone.

Bullman is a new mineral explorer. The company acquired Siguiri and another nearby Guinean project, Balandougouba, in its July qualifying transaction. By October Bullman had a drill turning at Siguiri North.

That drill has now completed 6,200 metres of drilling and results from the first four holes are out. All four intersected near-surface gold.

The best result so far came in hole 2, which cut 44 metres grading 3.73 grams gold per tonne starting from 9 metres downhole. Nearby, hole 1 returned 50 metres grading 0.895 gram gold from surface. Hole 3 intersected 55 metres grading 1.59 grams gold from 63 metres depth, and hole 4 cut 10 metres of 0.528 gram gold from 61 metres depth.

All four holes probed the Shawn deposit, which previous operators traced for 1 km along strike and to 100 metres depth. A historic resource estimate, not compliant with National Instrument 43-101 regulations, pegged Shawn at 20 million tonnes grading 1.26 grams gold.

Shawn is the largest deposit to date at Sigouri North. Two other deposits, FK and Tinko, lie along strike from Shawn. FK hosts 13 million tonnes grading 0.9 gram gold. Tinko offers 3.2 million tonnes averaging 1.2 grams gold. A fourth deposit, known as Amina, sits in a parallel structure 6 km west and contains 2.6 million tonnes grading 2.1 grams gold.

The gold in all of Siguiri North’s deposits is associated with quartz stockworks and sheeted veinlets oxidized to between 40 and 100 metres depth. Mineralization remains open along strike and at depth.

There are no defined deposits in the south block, which is smaller, but is also home to artisanal gold workings. Together, the North and South blocks at Siguiri cover 248 sq. km underlain by fine-grained sedimentary rocks, cut by felsic and mafic dykes.

Siguiri is located 230 km south of Bamako and 30 km east of AngloGold Ashanti’s (NYSE: AU) SAG mine, which produced 247,000 oz. gold in 2012. Siguiri is accessible via paved roads.

The other property Bullman acquired in its qualifying transaction, Balandougouba, sits 100 km east. It is the same size at Siguiri, covering 265 sq. km, and offers similar geology: fine-grained sedimentary rocks cut by mafic dykes and sills, though in the northeast Balandougouba hosts outcropping volcanic and intrusive units.

Previous operators outlined two deposits at the property, as well as a half-dozen other targets. The Sidikila deposit comprises two parallel, north–south trending, subvertical lenses that have been traced for 600 metres along strike and up to 250 metres depth. Widely spaced drill holes have followed the Jade deposit for 2 km along strike.

Both deposits remain open in all directions and Bullman plans to move its drill to Balandougouba after finishing its 10,000-metre program at Siguiri.

Bullman got the two properties by taking over Birimian Gold and Goldsea Investment. To complete those takeovers Bullman issued 18 million shares and paid US$1 million to Douro assignees and 5 million shares to the Chinese investment group that owned Goldsea. The shares were valued at 20¢, valuing the entire transaction at $5.6 million.

On news of the Siguiri drill results, Bullman’s share price gained a cent to close at 30¢. The company has 54 million shares outstanding.