Gold World sues former partners, starts anew in China (December 24, 2007)

Gold World Resources (GDW-V) is picking up the pieces of its China strategy and has signed a new joint-venture contract on a silver-gold property in Hebei province.

Gold World suffered a setback earlier this year after allegedly being fooled by middlemen into investing in what turned out to be a non-existent gold property called Xiqinggangping, in Henan province.

After a 5-month suspension, Gold World resumed trading on the TSX Venture Exchange on Nov. 30 and is now suing its former partners who structured Gold World’s acquisition of the property. Among the defendants in the lawsuit is Boris Ziger — Gold World’s former president.

The lawsuit claims that all the funds spent in connection with the Xiginggangping project could not be accounted for and as a result, the entire project was written off.

Gold World’s new joint venture in Henan — the province due south of Hebei province — will explore a 17.5-sq.-km. site with partner Shijiazhuang Comprehensive Geological Brigade.

The new property in Yangshugou — about 70 km west of the city of Shijiazhuang — is located in a recognized gold camp dating back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), with Ming-period tunnels and pits.

According to SRK Consulting, which completed a visit to the site in May, gold and silver occur- rences have been found, as well as ancient tunnels, but more surface evaluation is required before drilling is considered.

The engineering firm noted that Gold World’s exploration licences are within China’s Wutai-Taihang gold belt, where early Archean high-grade gneisses are overlain by middle to late-Proterozoic, low-grade, meta-sedimentary rock.

Gold World’s property is also situated 2-15 km away from three operating mines. The Shihu gold mine is about 10-15 km from the northeast edge of the Yangshugou property. That mine is currently producing 300 tonnes per day or 100,000 tonnes per year, SRK reports. One of the deposits at the Shihu gold mine reported grades of 16.5 grams gold per tonne.

Thirteen kilometres west-northwest of Yangshugou is the Beiying Xigou silver mine. The grade currently being mined at Beiying is reported to average 700 to 800 grams silver per tonne, according to the SRK report, with an average thickness of 2 metres.

The Jiuling gold-silver mine is located about 11.5 km south-southwest of the Shihu mine. At Jiuling, a 173-metre mineralized zone had an average thickness of 0.34 metre and an average grade of 11.57 grams gold per tonne, SRK noted.

Hermann Derbuch, Gold World’s chairman and chief executive, is excited about the project.

“In May, our joint-venture partner conducted extensive geochemical sampling on our property, which showed very significant silver and gold mineralization,” he says. “And the three mines around us give us an idea of the depth of what’s there. There are geological indicators that those zones run right through our property.”

Derbuch adds that the com- pany’s joint-venture partner has found distinct zoning — from high-grade gold in some cases with massive sulphides associated with pyrite to silver associated with sphalerite and galena.

Gold World will invest US$1.75 million for a 70% stake in the venture.