Etruscan Resources (EET-T) has agreed to acquire the 319-sq.-km Finkolo permit, 250 km southeast of Mali’s capital city of Bamako, from Bagoe National, a private Malian company.
Etruscan can acquire Finkolo by paying US$350,000 over three years and by spending US$200,000 on exploration by July 18, 2004. Bagoe will retain a 2% net smelter return on all future production from the property and will have a 5% free carried interest in the future mining company. The Malian government will also have a 10% free carried interest.
The property is underlain by the same Birimian-age greenstone belt rocks that host all of Mali’s major gold deposits including the 5.6-million-ounce Morila deposit held by AngloGold‘s (AU-N) and Randgold Resources.
Finkolo hosts three gold anomalies on the same geologic horizon as Randgold’s mothballed Syama deposit.
Previous drilling by BHP International in the mid-1980s focused on a 1.5-km portion of the property’s 3-km-long southern anomaly. Twenty-one widely spaced holes encountered disseminated mineralization running 1-6 grams gold per tonne over widths up to 33 meters. Smaller intervals (1-3 metres) ran between 15 and 40 grams gold.
Work by Barrick Gold (ABX-T) in the late 1990s extended the southern anomaly to 5 km, and turned up to new targets on the permit – the 4-km-long central and 3-km-long northern anomalies. All three anomalies occur along the Syama contact zone, which cuts across the entire permit for 22 km.
Etruscan’s plans at Finkolo include drilling on the southern anomaly, which remains open in all directions. Auger drilling will test saprolitic material over the central and northern anomalies. Trenching and deeper drilling will follow. The company also plans a program of magnetics and induced polarization surveying along the entire Syama contact zone.
Meanwhile in South Africa, Etruscan and partner Mountain Lake Resources (MOA-V) say that construction of the first-phase diamond mine at Ventersdorp is on schedule for commercial production to gear up in September 2002.
Running at a rate of 1.2 million tonnes per year, the mine is expected to churn out 19,200 carats of gem quality diamonds annually.
Known gravel resources on the Kooitgedacht farm are pegged at more than 12 million tonnes, which have historically averaged 1.6 carats per 100 tonnes. This is sufficient for 10 years of production at the projected rate.
The operation is expected to generate roughly US$28.5 million in cash flow, after taxes.
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