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SOUTH AMERICAN EXPLORATION Paul Isnard - French Guiana (earning 100%)
The project covers rocks of the Lower Proterozoic Paramacca Formation which contain gold mineralization in the form of pyritic disseminated zones or stringer zones and sulfide-rich shear zones, which can be reasonably correlated between the widely spaced (200 meter) drill sections. We have included an inferred mineral resource in our year-end resource estimate of 8.2 million tonnes grading 1.78g/t at Montagne d'Or on the southern boundary of the Paul Isnard concession. Further work is warranted to identify additional sources of hard rock mineralization, which together with the mineral resource at Montagne d'Or could support a future mining operation. In 2005, we will review the historical work on the property as a guide to future exploration. Bon Espoir - French Guiana (100% interest) In 2003, we acquired our interest from Gold Fields in the 466 km2 Bon Espoir property, located north of Paul Isnard in western French Guiana. The property covers the prospective northern limb of the North Guyanese Trough over a length of about 40 km, between metasediments and calc-alkaline volcanics of the Lower Proterozoic Armina Formation to the north and continental clastic sediments of the Orapu Formation to the south. The contact between the two sequences is marked by a major sinistral shear zone. Initial exploration by Western Mining Corporation confirmed the presence of significant soil gold-anomalies at the Wayamaga prospect, which lies on the sheared contact between the Armina and Orapu Formations. Subsequent exploration by Gold Fields, including extensive drilling, focused on this up to 5-km-long zone, outlining a potential for a maximum one million ounce resource within graphitic and tuffaceous Armina sediments. Virtually no work was completed outside the immediate Wayamaga prospect area either along strike or to the north within the Armina Formation. However, by analogy with the very similar Birimian terranes in Ghana, the most prospective zone may well lie 1-2 km north of the main 'break' and well within the Armina Formation. To test this idea, we have planned regional soil geochemistry for 2005 covering a 5-km-wide prospective corridor within the Armina Formation extending northwards from its contact with the Orapu Formation. Some 40 km of this prospective corridor remains to be tested within the Bon Espoir permit. Saramacca - Suriname (100% interest) The Saramacca gold project is located in north-central Suriname, approximately 100 to 120 kilometers south-southwest of Paramaribo. Recently, Newmont Overseas Exploration Limited signed a joint venture agreement on Golden Star’s Saramacca Project. The project area covers a 23-km-long Lower Proterozoic volcano-sedimentary greenstone belt along the general structural trend of Cambior's two-million-ounce Gross Rosebel deposit, discovered by Golden Star in 1994. This belt is intruded by a number of smaller granitic stocks and plugs which appear from regional geochemistry to be the possible source of widespread alluvial gold within the project area. Two phases of district scale BLEG (bulk leach extractable gold) drainage sampling carried out by Follow-up grid auger soil-sampling has defined several areas of gold-in-soil anomalies overlying the Paramacca metabasalts close to a contact with Armina Formation meta-sediments. The most intense of these anomalies extends continuously at levels in excess of 100 ppb of gold over a 5 km strike length on the Lafanti property. These results clearly warrant further exploration. Detailed drilling summary 2005 Benzdorp South (Antino) - Suriname (100% interest) The 72 km² Benzdorp South gold project is located along the eastern border of Suriname, approximately 220 km southeast of Paramaribo. The Benzdorp mining district is underlain by greenstones of the Lower Proterozoic Paramacca Formation and a felsic intrusive assemblage. Recorded and estimated alluvial gold production from historical dredging and present-day small-scale alluvial mining is in excess of 600,000 ounces. Exploration by Golden Star during the mid 1990’s failed to identify economically viable mineralization. Consequently, in early 2006 Golden Star’s underlying option rights over the property was farmed out to New Sleeper Gold Corporation (now Reunion Gold Corporation) and Nana Resources (the Surinamese property owner) in return for a minimum $5 million expenditure and periodic property payments over five years and a 0.75% net smelter return to Golden Star. Peru and Chile (about 30% interest) Minera IRL is a private, junior exploration company active in Peru and Chile in which we hold an approximate shareholding of 30%. Minera IRL has developed a portfolio of exploration projects, the most advanced of which, Corihuarmi in Peru, was drilled in 2003 with encouraging results. Corihuarmi, located 250 km east of Lima near Huancayo, consists of an extensive high sulfidation epithermal system with gold mineralization hosted in massive/vuggy silica and alunite zones. The focus of Minera IRL's exploration has been two massive siliceous outcrops known as Susan and Diana, which crop-out boldly above the surrounding softer argillically altered volcanic rocks. It is thought that the better-grade oxide gold mineralization at Susan and Diana is structurally controlled within silicified crackle breccia zones where they are cut by feeder structures. Several similar zones have been identified and additional drilling was completed in 2004 to expand the size of the current gold resource in readiness for technical studies in 2005. Other earlier-stage projects being investigated by Minera IRL include: 1) Frontera (in joint venture with Minera Hochschild), located in northern Chile, 90 km northeast from the seaport of Arica, and just across the Peruvian border from Minsur's Checocollo project, which has been intensively drilled over the last 12 months, 2) Cushuro in the La Libertad district of northern Peru, and 3) the Chama prospect near Abancay. 43-101 - PAUL ISNARD, YAOU & DORLIN PROJECTS, French Guiana Independent Resource Estimations prepared by RSG Global. |
