Banro pulls strong intercepts at Twangiza in DRC

Assay results from an additional 30 diamond-drill holes from Banro’s (BAA-T, BAA-X) Twangiza project on the Twangiza-Namoya gold belt, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, continue to come up golden.

The holes were drilled as part of the Toronto-based company’s bankable feasibility study, but were not included in the mineral resource estimate for the prefeasibility study released on July 7.

A bankable feasibility study on Twangiza, the most advanced of Banro’s four projects, is expected to be completed in December.

Highlights of the infill drilling include intercepts such as 192 metres grading 2.02 grams gold per tonne; 149 metres at 1.71 grams gold; 68 metres of 3.77 grams gold; 77.8 metres of 2.17 grams gold; and 60 metres at 3.5 grams gold.

The results should contribute to an increase in measured and indicated resources at Twangiza, as well as to an increase in proven and probable reserves that will be incorporated into the upcoming feasibility.

Twangiza has an estimated measured resource of 1.3 million oz. gold (16.7 tonnes grading 2.59 grams gold per tonne) and an indicated resource of 2.35 million oz. (42.5 million tonnes grading 1.72 grams gold). The inferred resource is pegged at 600,000 oz. gold (10 million tonnes averaging 1.8 grams gold).

The property is 45 km south-southwest of Bukavu in South Kivu province and is made up of six exploitation permits covering 1,164 sq. km.

Core holes were inclined at between minus 50 and minus 83 and averaged 248 metres depth with a maximum depth of nearly 543 metres.

Within the mineralized zones, core recovery averaged 92.7% and spacing was arranged on 40-metre sections.

Underlying Twangiza are sediments of Proterozoic age that have been intruded by porphyry sills, folded into a series of broad anticlines and synclines and subjected to very low-grade metamorphism.

Gold mineralization at the main Twangiza deposit is hosted within mudstones, siltstones, greywackes and porphyries along the crest of a major anticlinal structure.

The mineralization is of hydrothermal origin and is associated with sulphides, which occur in quartz-carbonate veins, and disseminations throughout the host rocks.

The deposit was first discovered in the 1950s by Mines des Grands Lacs, which followed the occurrence of alluvial gold deposits upstream from the Mwana River to the present-day Twangiza deposit.

Banro acquired the property in 1996 and in the following year alone, spent US$9 million on exploration. That program involved 10,490 linekm of airborne geophysics, 1,613 samples from 16 adits, and 8,577 drill-core samples from 9,122 metres of diamond drilling along 800 metres of strike.

The work represented less than 20% of the identified mineralized trend.

Banro is focused on four major, wholly owned gold projects, each with mining licences, along the 210- km-long Twangiza-Namoya gold belt in the South Kivu and Maniema provinces of the DRC.

The Canadian gold explorer recently traded at about $3.95 per share. The company has a 52-week trading range of $3.70-13 per share and has 40.4 million shares outstanding.