Rift Resources acquires prospecting licences in Uganda and Ethiopia

Rift Resources (RIF-V) is making inroads in East Africa. The Toronto-based junior has been granted a prospecting licence in Uganda and an exploration licence in Ethiopia.

The prospect in southwestern Uganda encompasses 190,000 ha and covers parts of the historic Kigezi and Buhweju gold camps, as well as some of the Kasese-Ft. Portal copper belt.

Gold mineralization in southwestern Uganda is associated with the Mid-Proterozoic Karagwe-Ankolean system and the undifferentiated schists and gneisses of the underlying Lower Proterozoic Buganda-Toro system.

Rift’s Ethiopian property, totalling 74,225 ha, is adjacent to the border with Kenya. The licensed area covers much of the Moyale greenstone belt, which is considered a southern extension of the Adola greenstone belt. The Adola hosts the region’s only commercial gold mine, at Legadembi.

Exploration in Ethiopia will be carried out on four gold prospects north and east of Moyale, a Kenyan border town. The prospects at Chamuk, Haramsam and Hassamte were previously identified by the Ethiopian Institute for Geological Surveys (EIGS) during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

At Chamuk, about 2 km northeast of Moyale, gold mineralization is associated with quartz veining and sulphide mineralization in the fracture zones of an altered metagranodiorite.

Initial drilling (1,800 metres) at Chamuk indicates that gold mineralization extends over a strike length of at least 90 metres, a width of 2-9 metres and a depth of at least 150 metres. The EIGS reports a mineral resource of 213,700 tonnes averaging 7.43 grams gold per tonne in part of the prospect.

At Haramsam, 7 km northeast of Chamuk, gold mineralization has been found in quartz stringers and, to a lesser extent, in the amphibolite and chlorite schist host rock. Gold is associated with pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena and graphite. In addition, placer gold deposits formed along the Satiche river and other Haramsam river tributaries.

In the Hassamte area, 17 km east of Moyale, gold is found in gossaniferous and sulphide-bearing quartz veins in oxidized and sheared metagabbros with subordinate amphibolites and chlorite-sericite schists. Gold mineralization is also hosted by a saprolitic layer.

Rift Resources plans to begin trenching and drilling at the Chamuk, Haramsam and Hassamte prospects.