 |
| |
In December 2006, the Company entered into an option agreement with Arc Mining Corporation ("Arc"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Zambezi Gold Plc, a company registered in the United Kingdom, to acquire a 50% interest in the Booué-Mimongo Project in Gabon.
The Booué Gold Property consists of one 7,336 km² Prospecting Authorization and is located in north central Gabon. The Mimongo Gold Property consists of one 529 km² Prospecting Authorization and is located in south central Gabon. SearchGold is the project operator and can acquire a 50% interest in both properties over three years by incurring a total of US$1,500,000 in exploration expenditures as follows : US$250,000 the first year, US$500,000 in the second and US$750,000 in the third year.
Arc is a private Luxembourg based mining company involved in the acquisition and development of mining projects and managed by a team of well respected mining professionals. Once SearchGold earns its 50% interest in the projects, SearchGold and Arc will contribute jointly to further develop the properties. A 2% NSR is payable to DeBeers.
Archean rocks underlie approximately 50% of Gabon's territory. The potential for gold is severely undeveloped and SearchGold's Booué-Mimongo Gold Project offers significant upside through favorable exposure to the potential rock sequence. In this specific case, the potential is enhanced by positive gold results in geochemical stream samples collected by DeBeers.
The Booué property is located in north-central Gabon, near the border with Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. The town of Mitzic lies within the perimeter of the property 20 km south of its northern border. The area is accessible by the paved main road linking the capital Libreville to the main northern town of Oyem. A well developed network of forestry roads insures easy access to most parts of the property.
The bedrock, of Archean age, is comprised essentially of gneisses. Dating on Mitzic's charnockitic gneisses indicates an age of 3100+/-50 Ma. Northwest trending metakimberlitic bodies and mafic and ultramafic complexes have been identified during regional geological mapping in the Mitzic area. The area is also known for iron formations sequences comprising quartzites, amphibolites, metavolcanics or ultrabasic rocks. A major northwest trending Eburenan-Archean contact occurs in the southwestern part of the permit between a Francevillian, dominantly sedimentary package, and the Archean shield.
The Mimongo property is located in south-central Gabon approximately 5 km southwest of the town of Mimongo and the area is accessible by laterite road.
The bedrock, of Archean age, is comprised essentially of intrusive and gneissic rocks belonging to the Chaillu massif which is dated at 2 650 Ma. The Eburenan-Archean contact occurring in the southwestern part of the Booué property is also present in the western part of the Mimongo property and shows a northeasterly direction. The Francevillian rock package comprises in this instance metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks and is wedged between a major gneissic dome to the west and the Chaillu massif to the east. Additional wedges of Francevillian rocks are also present in the eastern part of the property. The prolific Etéké gold district which historically produced 500,000 ounces of alluvial gold, sits approximately 20 km to the north of the Mimongo property in a similar geological environment.
Very little recorded work has been carried out in the areas covered by both properties.
The principal operator was DeBeers who carried out regional exploration work for diamonds in Gabon over an area of 33,513 km². This work essentially consisted of regional stream geochemistry and airborne geophysical surveys:
- A total of 9,315 stream samples were collected during the various programs. The coarse fraction was isolated for each sample and studied with a binocular microscope for diamond indicator minerals. In numerous instances gold grains were observed in these coarse fractions.
- Airborne geophysical surveys were executed by Fugro Airborne Surveys Limited and consisted in the acquisition of magnetic data. A total of 36,850 km of lines were flown at average height of 75 m with a 250 m spacing
The Booué and Mimongo projects were identified on the basis of their samples having returned visible gold grains in the coarse fractions. Within the 7,865 km² perimeter represented by the two properties a total of 2,719 stream samples have been collected
On the Booué property a total of 119 samples reported up to 34 gold grains in the coarse fraction. Several plurikilometric clusters appear to be associated with regional structures and lithological contacts. In the case of the Mimongo project, 9 samples reported up to 4 gold grains in the coarse fraction. These samples are spread out in a somewhat more homogeneous manner than in the case of the Booué project.
Following preliminary data base compilation, field work has been initiated in July 2007 by SearchGold in the most promising areas. Regular updates will be provided as the work progresses.
Booue-Mimongo Location |
Booue Geology |
Mimongo Geology |
|
| | |
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
