I had a Geologist friend of mine break the latest NR down into terms that can be more easily digested.....I'm loading more at this price.......GLTA
I looked a little more closely at the Roscan press release. I think they are doing some good systematic work, and are identifying some continuous zones of gold mineralization at a few of their “targets” (or deposits) on the Kandiole Project. All of these targets occur along an interpreted zone of mineralization over 30-km in length, striking NNE through the project area.
This press release concerned the Kabaya target, perhaps the best defined so far. Other important targets include the Mankouke and Kandiole deposits (to the south of Kabaya), which also appear to contain relatively cohesive mineralization as well.
The Kabaya deposit already has a Resource Calculation, and contains an “Indicated Resource” of 105,000 oz gold (Au), and a complementary “Inferred Resource” of 35,000 oz gold, i.e., proven and probable. This is getting well on the way to being an exploitable orebody (as a reference, some of the bigger mines in West Arica contain about 1,000,000 oz Au or more). Expanded drilling and expanded proven mineralization can rapidly modify the resource estimated.
The exploration program has used a combination of Air Core (AC) Drill, Reverse Circulation (RC) Drill and Diamond Drill (DD) to test and delineate the mineralized zones. These types of drilling produce samples ranging from powder and chips to solid core. They all have their place in exploration, but with varying levels of quantifiable reliability, which are weighed differently. Most of the drill results now being reported are DD (core) results, the most reliable. They are in a process of closely-spaced “delineation drilling”, ideally along lines spaced 50 m or less apart, and filling in other gaps in their trace of the continuity of mineralization. This press release indicates that the Kabaya mineralization “is open” at depth, meaning it continues beyond the depth of drilling to date, and indicating a further potential (to be tested) for underground development.
The gold grades are ‘pretty good’ and relatively typical of many West African deposits. The averaged analyses for the broader mineralized drill intervals are generally “low-grade” (ca. 1-3 gram/ton Au), but with contained sections that are medium-grade (ca. 4-8 g/t Au) or high-grade (>10 g/t Au). The advantage with this deposit (as with many other African deposits) is the significant depth of “saprolite” (very weathered bedrock) hosting it... which is soft and easy to exploit in an initial open pit (rather than being restricted to underground mining only).
I also have every confidence in John Learn (a Canadian consultant, now living a long time in Burkina Faso), who is managing the exploration for this project. I think with some further drilling they will be able to update the resource estimate at Kabaya and even provide preliminary estimates for the other deposits at Mankouke and Kandiole. All in all, I expect an increase in property/investment value, especially if gold jumps again into record high territory. I the share prices are currently low (0.33 cents) it might be an opportunity to lower your average share cost...