SOUTHEAST ASIA SPECIAL — Goldstake working on Java

Although the attention of mining companies has been fixed on Kalimantan, it is worth remembering that all the islands of the Malay Archipelago were born of volcanism. And where there is volcanic action, there is mineralization.

So it should be no surprise that Java, which is divided lengthwise by a spine of volcanic peaks, has gold showings of its own. Goldstake Explorations (TSE) has acquired a set of prospects on the island about 100 km southeast of Jakarta. The island, one of the most densely populated places in the world, also has an excellent transportation network that makes exploration much easier than in the back country of Kalimantan and Sumatra.

Goldstake’s principal Javanese bet is the Ann prospect, where earlier exploration drilling on the edge of a volcanic caldera — a ring structure centred on a volcanic dome — encountered mineralization with gold grades up to 1 oz. per ton (34.3 grams per tonne) over narrow widths.

The structure displays a ring fault with an andesite porphyry at the centre and fragmental volcanic rocks at the margins. Surface trenches indicated gold mineralization along a 2.4-km fracture zone. Local, small-scale miners have produced some gold from the area as well.

Goldstake and its Indonesian associate are planning a program of drilling and preliminary feasibility work with a budget of US$792,000.

Goldstake has also obtained a Contract of Work on Kalimantan, about 100 km southeast of the Busang deposit. The company has US$600,000 budgeted for geophysical work, sampling and drilling.