Axmin to expand stake in Bouroum

A bankable feasibility study of the Bouroum gold deposit in Burkina Faso has been completed, and Axmin (AXM-V) wants it all.

The company intends to buy Channel Resources‘ (CHU-V) 27% interest in the property, in accordance with a 2002 agreement, and thereby assume full ownership. The 275-sq.-km permit area is about 200 km northeast of Ouagadougou.

Meanwhile, High River Gold (HRG-T) has been working on the Taparko property, 35 km to the southeast. In 2002, Axmin entered into an agreement with High River to study the possibility of a joint effort aimed at reducing the costs of a feasibility study and development work on both properties.

Axmin will buy Channel’s share of Bouroum at a previously determined price based on the price of gold and the number of ounces estimated to be present in the reserves. The price is US$445,079.

The Bouroum property is underlain by a Lower Proterozoic Birimian greenstone belt. Gold is associated with quartz veins in shear zones that form a 6-km-wide, north-northwest-trending deformation corridor. Some prospects have seen small-scale artisanal mining since 1987.

Bouroum is known to contain three gold prospects: F12, Welcome Stranger and Bissinga. In January 2003, SRK Consulting combined data from each of these deposits to calculate a measured and indicated resource of 3.9 million tonnes grading 2.8 grams gold per tonne, plus 1.6 million tonnes at 2.2 grams gold in the inferred category. The reserve is equivalent to 109,896 ounces gold.