Carolina gold belt lures Revolution Resources

With historic gold production dating back to the early 1800s, coupled by the success Romarco Minerals (r-t) has enjoyed expanding the Haile gold project to 4.2 million contained gold oz., Revolution Resources (rv-t) is focusing its attention on the bulk-tonnage potential of the Carolina slate belt in North Carolina.
In recent months, the company optioned a 90% interest in the Champion Hills project in the central part of the state, 85 km northeast of Charlotte. The project area totals about 2.4 sq. km, covering multiple properties in two historic mining areas, the Loflin and Jones-Keystone prospects.
“As a result of unfinished exploration work conducted by Noranda Exploration some fifteen years ago, both of the properties are drill-test ready,” states Revolution on its website.
The Carolina slate belt is a unique geologic feature that trends from Georgia to Virginia. Covering five states, this 600-km-long historic belt has been host to 1,500 past-producing gold mines, including the more recent and larger-scale Ridgeway and Barite Hill mines.  
Gold was discovered in the Champion Hills area in the early 1800s, with small-scale production continuing through to the 1930s. Revolution says the region has received minimal modern exploration generally due to a complex land tenure comprising multiple small private landowners.
Noranda explored Champion Hills for shallow, open-pittable gold deposits from 1989 to 1992, completing 23 core holes totalling 2,900 metres. Noranda put 20 holes into the Loflin prospect alone, targeting a large 650-by-750-metre gold-in-soil anomaly. Several holes encountered multiple intercepts averaging 0.5 to 1.3 grams gold per tonne over long intervals of up to 150 metres, typically starting at, or near surface.
Selected highlights from Noranda’s drilling include: 97 metres averaging 0.94 gram gold, including 47.2 metres of 1.18 grams in hole 90-1; 120.9 metres averaging 0.82 gram gold, including 44.2 metres of 1.63 grams in hole 90-2; 149 metres averaging 0.53 gram gold, including 21.9 metres of 0.92 gram in hole 90-3; 19.8 metres of 0.86 gram gold in hole 90-5; and 30.5 metres of 1 gram gold in hole 90-8.
Until the recent successes by Romarco at the Haile gold project in South Carolina, the Carolina slate belt has been largely ignored since the early 1990s, when most active mining and exploration work ceased due to low metal prices.
Historically, the Carolina slate belt has been known for mainly low-grade, high-sulphidation deposits, but recent drill results at Haile show there is potential for high-grade feeder gold zones. Revolution also notes that advances in metallurgical processing should have a positive impact on improved recoveries for the sulphide-rich mineralization relative to what was achievable in the early 1990s.
Since acquiring the past-producing Haile project in late 2007, Romarco has outlined measured and indicated resources containing 3.1 million oz. gold, based on 53.4 million tonnes of 1.82 grams gold. Inferred resources host an additional 1.1 million oz. gold in 24.9 million tonnes of 1.34 grams gold.
Revolution’s management believes the highly prospective belt of rocks still offers significant potential for further discoveries. Last year, the junior shifted its attention from Greenland and struck an arm’s length agreement with a private company (controlled by Aaron Keay, Rob McLeod and Michael Williams, all principals of Revolution), which had been optioning parcels of land from private owners for the previous 12 months.
Revolution acquired a 90% interest in the Champion Hills property for US$375,000 and 2 million shares, with a right of first refusal for the remaining 10%. The company assumes all underlying option and lease agreements with the land owners, which includes cash payments of US$200 per acre up front and US$150 per acre annually over a five-year lease term, as well as payments of US$1 per foot drilled.
Revolution may at any time enter into a 20-year lease agreement with any of the landowners and pay an annual US$200-per-acre advance royalty. The company has a right of first refusal to buy the surface and mineral rights at 150% the tax-assessed land value. The properties are subject to a 2% net smelter return royalty.
Last October, Revolution began a first pass of exploration drilling, targeting the Loflin and Jones-Keystones prospects. Eleven holes totalling 2,700 metres were completed. The company encountered significant gold mineralization in the first three holes, which were drilled to confirm the results of Noranda’s better holes at Loflin.
Holes 17 and 18 were collared from the same setup and aimed back towards Noranda’s 90-1 and 90-2 holes. Angled at minus 60 degrees, hole 17 intersected 70 metres averaging 1.1 grams gold, including a higher-grade 20-metre section of 2.19 grams. Hole 18 was steepened to minus 80 degrees and cut 74 metres averaging 1.12 grams gold, including 30 metres of 2.59 grams.
Revolution stepped out 50 metres along strike to the southwest with hole 19 and aimed it back towards Noranda’s hole 90-5. It intercepted a comparable 14 metres grading 0.79 gram gold. Three of Revolution’s other holes (20, 21 and 22) into Loflin failed to intersect any significant gold mineralization.
The gold mineralization is hosted in andesitic metavolcanic rocks and associated with strong pyrite, pyrrhotite and arsenopyrite mineralization along east-northeast striking shear zones.
Assays are currently pending for two more holes at Loflin and one remaining hole at the Jones-Keystone prospect, located 2.7 km along trend to the east.
Previous work by Noranda at Jones-Keystone included soil sampling, geological mapping, trenching and three drill holes totalling 450 metres. Highlights from Noranda’s limited drilling included 19.8 metres of 0.93 gram gold in hole 1 and 6.1 metres of 1.71 grams gold in hole 3. Noranda also chip-sampled an old working that returned 1.4 grams gold across 40 metres.
Revolution put three holes into the Jones-Keystone prospect and tested 130 metres of strike length beneath an area covered by several shallow pit mine workings. Hole 5 intersected 15 metres of 0.52 gram gold, starting from 162 metres downhole. Hole 6 stepped out 130 metres to the southwest and cut 54 metres of 1.56 grams gold, including 3.01 grams across 28 metres, beginning at 184 metres of drilled depth.
Revolution has begun a more comprehensive second phase of drilling on the Champion Hills project, with a planned 5,000-metre program that will continue to test the historic Jones-Keystone and Loflin mine areas. In addition, Revolution’s geological team is carrying out mapping, prospecting and soil sampling along trend of Champion Hills, with the objective of identifying more drill targets.
Revolution Resources has 41.6 million shares outstanding or 45.5 million shares fully diluted, with $4.5 million cash on hand. The stock is trading off a 52-week high of 88¢.