newsVangold Resources Ltd.: J/V Agreement Extended Fieldwork to Resume at Feni Islands to Establish Drill Targets for Upcoming Drill Program
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(CCNMatthews - Aug. 24, 2006) - Vangold Resources Ltd. ("Vangold") (TSX VENTURE:VAN) announces that its joint venture partner, New Guinea Gold Corporation has agreed to an extension to June 30, 2007 for Vangold to spend a further $1.26M and issue 200,000 common shares to earn a further 25% in the Feni Islands Project (EL 1021). Vangold presently owns 50% of the project.
The Feni Islands lie within the Lihir Corridor, which hosts the world-class porphyry copper-gold deposit at Bougainville and the world's largest gold porphyry, hot spring gold deposit at Lihir Island (approx. 50 million ounces gold). The Feni Islands Project has a total area of 166.6 sq km and includes both Ambitle and Babase Islands that comprise the Feni Islands. The Feni Islands are approximately 40 miles southeast of Lihir Island.
On August 29, 2006, Dr. David Lindley, VP Exploration, PNG and lead geologist for the Feni project, is scheduled to return to the Feni Islands to resume fieldwork. The work will target the Dome Prospect which occupies approximately one-third of the now extinct central crater on Ambitle Island, the larger of two islands that comprise the Feni Islands. This work is based on a data review conducted by Dr. Lindley the results of which were published in Vangold's November 3, 2005 news release.
Further to this review Dr. Lindley reports as follows:
The Dome Prospect is the name applied to a 2.0 to 2.5 km2 area of the central crater that appears to be largely blanketed by a sheet of trachyte lava of variable thickness (10 to 70 m). The lava sheet is believed to mask an area highly prospective for the occurrence of Lihir-style disseminated gold mineralisation. Previous exploration by Vangold and others concludes that certainly some (if not all) of the Dome trachyte is a relatively thin veneer of lava rock overlying an altered and variably mineralised sequence.
Historical work has demonstrated that pannable gold is present in a majority of streams draining the central crater. Clusters of panned samples, one to the north and one to the south of the Dome Prospect, are distinctive in that they contain few visible colours of gold, yet have returned encouraging assay results. This characteristic is thought to be indicative of the presence of very fine-grained gold of the type liberated from Lihir's sulphide ore once it has been weathered and oxidised. These alluvial occurrences of Lihir-type gold are presently being reworked from an ancient drainage network that existed prior to a final 2,300 year ago ash eruption which blanketed the central crater. Indirect geological evidence (detailed stream bedrock mapping etc) points toward the Dome Prospect (and the underlying sequence) as a potential source to this fine-grained alluvial gold.
The presence in the Northern Dome Prospect (adjoining the Dome Prospect) of what, on Lihir Island, is termed anhydrite-sealed rock is another compelling geological parallel between the Feni Island and Lihir Island Groups. These unique rocks comprise large angular blocks of volcanic rock that have been violently broken apart and invaded by anhydrite (calcium sulphate) as a result of rapid unloading and depressurisation following a catastrophic failure of the summit area of the respective stratovolcanoes.
Anhydrite-sealed rocks outcrop in a 0.24 km2 area of the central crater of Ambitle Island and appear to pass beneath the Dome lava.
We are fortunate that structural geological information gleaned from synthetic aperture radar ("SAR") imagery over Ambitle Island may be of considerable assistance in what otherwise takes on the proportions of a "needle in a haystack" search beneath the extensive Dome lava sheet. Study of SAR imagery confirms what has been known for many years that a prominent northeast trending fracture (known as the Kabang Structure) passes diagonally across the central crater and the Dome Prospect. Both the Feni and Lihir Island Groups lie in the same tectonic province (at the edge of the rapidly advancing Pacific Plate). Therefore, by analogy with the Lihir (Ladolam) gold deposits, where a similarly northeast trending fracture (the Minifie Structure) has played a key role in the formation of the high-grade Minifie Orebody, it is possible that the same geological processes have occurred along the Kabang Structure.
The presently planned fieldwork aims to provide an assessment of the Dome lava sheet and adjacent areas in the central crater. This assessment will permit a decision on future drill testing at the Dome Prospect and along the Kabang Structure. Fieldwork will include:
1. Geological mapping of the Kabang Structure and its extensions across the Dome Prospect.
2. Investigation of the anyhdrite-sealed rocks of the adjoining Northern Dome Prospect. Panned concentrate sampling of streams draining the Dome Prospect margins.
The fieldwork is the preliminary work to establish drill targets for an upcoming drill program which is expected to commence early 2007. The plan, at this time, is to drill two fences of drillholes (4 holes per fence/an estimated 120m each per hole) in the Dome prospect area. Vangold plans to expend approximately CDN$600,00 on the program.
On Behalf of the Board of VANGOLD RESOURCES LTD.
Dal Brynelsen, President and CEO
The statements made in this News Release may contain certain forward-looking statements. Actual events or results may differ from Vangold's expectations. Certain risk factors may also affect the actual results achieved by Vangold.
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