Vancouver — A 6-hole drilling program by Kamloops, B.C.-based
The project is 570 km east of the capital, Conakry, and 27 km north of
From 1996 to 1998, Montreal-based Le Groupe Minier Sidam worked the ground by collecting 2,775 soil samples over a 3.2-sq.-km section. The program outlined three separate anomalies averaging 342 parts per billion gold.
The most promising target, Koe Koe South, is marked by a 1.5-sq.-km area of greater than 100 ppb gold with a 500-by-500-metre core zone, from which 196 samples returned an average of 1.02 grams gold per tonne. Samples were taken at 50-metre line spacings at 25-metre intervals. The best two lines yielded an impressive 3.04 grams gold per tonne over 475 metres and 2.26 grams gold per tonne over 475 metres. The highest soil value was 40.7 grams gold per tonne.
In July 2002, Cassidy acquired a 100% interest in the property, subject to 15% state participation. The junior paid $5,000 on signing, plus US$20,000 after completing a due diligence review, along with 200,000 shares. To earn its stake, the company agreed to pay another US$130,000 and issue 400,000 shares over four years. After that, US$50,000 is to be paid annually, plus US$50,000 at the start of any test production and US$100,000 at commercial production. The vendor retains a sliding-scale royalty of US$1 per oz. gold when the price is less than US$350 per oz., up to US$2 per oz. when the price averages more than US$450.
In late April, Cassidy began drill-testing three targets on the Koe Koe South zone.
Hole 3 targeted the EW vein, where artisan workings occur along a 500-metre, east-west trend. The hole hit mineralized saprolite at a down-hole depth of 33.5 metres, yielding 7.07 grams gold per tonne over a true thickness of 1.9 metres.
Moving 250-550 metres south, holes 4-6 tested the SW vein, which is marked at surface by a northwest-trending, 500-metre-long trench dug by artisanal miners several centuries ago. Collared in the centre of the vein trend, hole 4 cut 16.87 grams gold over an estimated true width of 8 metres.
Hole 5 was drilled 40 metres southeast and cut 100.9 grams gold over 3.52 metres. Included in this section was a 0.69-metre interval yielding 372 grams gold. Moving 100 metres southeast, hole 5 yielded 9.16 grams gold over 3.24 metres.
The higher-grade intervals are generally carried by intercepts of half a metre to 1 metre grading 10-372 grams gold, bounded by material grading 1-5 grams gold.
“The veins are expressed on surface for 600 metres by artisanal diggings, and we nailed them at depth,” says Cassidy President James Gillis, adding that “the high-grade sections appear to line up.”
Artisanal diggings
The first two holes targeted an area of artisanal diggings 500 metres northeast of the SW vein, with both holes cutting saprolite mineralization. Hole 1 returned 0.8 gram gold per tonne over 10.7 metres near the top of the hole, and 0.84 gram gold over 23.3 metres lower down in skarn-type mineralization. Hole 2 returned 0.32 gram gold over 4.6 metres.
Mineralization is hosted in mafic metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks, apparently of Birimian age. Birimian lithologies host most of the major gold deposits of West Africa, including Obuasi, Sadiola and Siguiri. The higher-grade sections tend to lie along the selvage of the quartz vein in brecciated material. The vein material is milky-white and comprises millimetre-scale fractures.
“Saprolitic material goes down as far as 79 metres and only 40 metres in some holes,” says Christopher Wild, vice-president of exploration. “So we’re probably in sulphides below 40 metres.”
The planned, 2,000-metre drill program was scaled back to 519 metres as a result of drilling problems: most the intercepts yielded less than 50% core recovery.
“The recovery was poor because an underpowered drill went through soft saprolite into hard quartz, causing a flush-out of the soft material,” explains Wild, “but hole four got close to a hundred per-cent recovery, so the grades appear to be representative.”
The samples were analyzed in Bamako, Mali, using standard, 50-gram fire-assay techniques. The high-grade values were checked by re-assaying the same pulp, and a gravimetric finish was used on all samples assaying more than 10 grams gold. The check assays confirm the high gold values with a variation of 10-40% from the original results. The gravimetric finish resulted in the highest increase, suggesting the presence of coarse gold.
Other target
The Sodyanfe soil anomaly lies 1 km to the northwest and is defined by 213 samples collected on a 25-by-50-metre spaced grid. These samples yielded an average grade of 0.49 gram gold per tonne, with the best value returning 8.63 grams. The most promising results occur in the southern portion of the anomaly, where two lines averaged 1.06 grams gold over 450 metres and 0.92 gram gold over 250 metres.
A third anomaly, also in the Koe Koe grid area, lies along a creek bed known as the Koekoe River.
Structurally, the mineralized quartz veins are steeply dipping and trend east-west, northeast-southwest, and northwest-southeast.
“The targets are beautiful,” says Gillis. “There is no need for geophysics because the artisans have done the work for us with their diggings, which can be followed religiously.”
The French-speaking Republic of Guinea is the world’s second-largest producer of bauxite. However, gold exploration has been increasing in recent years.
Along with Semafo’s mine, Guinea’s two main gold-producers are Socit Ashanti de Guine (SAG), an 86%-owned division of
SAG’s Siguiri mine is in northeastern Guinea, 800 km from Conakry. In 2002, the operation produced 269,292 oz. at a cash cost of US$230 per oz. The heap-leach plant treated 9.5 million tonnes of material grading 1.16 grams gold during the year. At the end of 2001, reserves stood at 56.7 million tonnes grading 1.2 grams gold per tonne.
SMD, which is 85%-owned by Norway-based Kenor and 15% by the government of Guinea, operates the Lero-Karta mine in northern Guinea. The orebody was discovered in 1990, and the first gold poured five years later.
In 2002, Lero-Karta produced 108,248 oz. gold at a cash cost of US$300 per oz. In total, 3.47 million tonnes of material comprising 770,000 tonnes of saprolite and 2.7 million tonnes of laterite were treated at an average grade of 1.47 grams gold.
At the end of 2001, total resources were pegged at 15.1 million tonnes grading 2.4 grams gold. SMD has also outlined an indicated and inferred resource of 32.6 million tonnes grading 1.4 grams gold at Fayalala, about 10 km away. The company recently discovered the Jim zone, following deep drilling below the central part of the Fayalala pit. The sulphide zone, which was essentially blind and only becomes apparent at a minimum depth of 70 metres below surface, extends for 500 metres along strike, is 100 metres wide, and has a vertical depth of at least 150 metres. The zone averages 1.5-2 grams gold.
Semafo’s operation was officially opened in April 2002 at a cost of US$12.4 million. The Kiniero mine hosts a proven and probable reserve base of 866,000 tonnes grading 6.06 grams gold, plus a measured and indicated resource of 1.5 million tonnes grading 6.80 grams gold. In 2002, the operation produced 42,005 oz. gold from 416,623 tonnes of material grading 6.05 grams gold.
Plans
Based on the encouraging drill results from its first campaign, Cassidy will launch a 2,000-metre drilling program after the rainy season, possibly as early as September. “We will go in with a larger, more competent drill and start drilling off the veins,” states Gillis.
The junior has also applied for more ground surrounding the property and hopes to add a reverse-circulation drill to test saprolitic targets.
In May,
Cassidy closed a $626,000 financing comprising 2.1 million units priced at 30 each. A unit comprises one share and one warrant exercisable at 33 for a year and at 45 for two years.
“We now have $450,000, but after two months we’ll be down to $250,000,” says Gillis. “We want to minimize the dilution, so we are considering a non-brokered private placement.”
Cassidy has 18.7 million shares outstanding, or 30 million fully diluted, and trades at around 40.
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