![]() | ![]() | ||
![]() | ![]() Recent Work and Planned Exploration High River Gold has recently completed a 31,500 metre drilling programme on the Bissa project which was designed to extend the known gold mineralization southwest along the Bissa-Gonglou corridor (see March 21, 2006 news release). On May 23, 2006 High River Gold announced a substantial increase to the 43-101 gold resources to 1.3 million ounces based on this drill programme (see May 23, 2006 news release). Measured and indicated resources increased from 147,250 oz to 662,250 oz while inferred resources grew from 9,970 oz to 679,470oz. High River is planning to spend approximately $2 Million per quarter beginning in 4Q 2006 on drilling to further increase the resource base. Potential targets include areas further southwest along the Sabce shear zone, as well as five other major areas of gold mineralization on the Bissa Group Permits, identified by a compilation of previous drill results and soil samples, namely; Gonglou, Bouly, Liliga, Gougre, Rofo, and Lessa.
The Bissa Group Permits covers an area of approximately 1,000 square kilometres in the province of Sanmatenga, approximately 80 kilometres north of the capital city of Ouagadougou. The Bissa group of exploration permits comprise seven contiguous permits: Zandkom, Bissa, Raka, Tosse, Tema, Gargo and Namtenga. The project was acquired through a merger with Jilbey Gold Exploration Inc. ("Jilbey") in September 2005. High River owns 100% of the permits except for Zandkom and Bissa (147 sq km) where the Company owns a 60% interest with the option to increase its interest to 90%.
Substantial work on the project area was conducted by a joint venture between Faso Etude et Travaux, a Burkinabe company, and Randgold Resources Ltd. ("Randgold"). At the time the joint venture encompassed a much larger land position of over 2,500 sq km. The project was optioned to Newmont Overseas Exploration Ltd. in 1994-95 and North Ltd in 1996-2000. Initial gold mineralization was uncovered at Bissa Hill during the 1997-98 season and was interpreted to be associated with the regional northeast trending Sabce shear zone. During this period, Rangold and its partners conducted extensive exploration work on the Bissa group permits. The work included detailed geophysical surveys, extensive soil sampling, rotary air blast (RAB), reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling. In 2001, Delta Gold Ltd. entered into a joint venture agreement with Randgold to explore the properties. Under this agreement, Delta conducted extensive exploration work, including trenching and RC drilling primarily at the Bissa Hill occurrence and the Gougre prospect. This work resulted in the delineation of the near-surface Bissa Hill deposit. In early 2004, Jilbey optioned the project and immediately focused its exploration activities on the previously outlined Bissa Hill gold deposit with further work continuing along the strike extension of the deposit (Bissa-Gonglou corridor). Positive exploration results prompted High River, which held a 29% equity interest in Jilbey, to merge with that company in September 2005.
The Bissa group permits are underlain by volcano-sedimentary rocks on the northeast edge of the Boromo greenstone belt, part of the prolific lower Proterozoic Birimian greenstone belts of the West African craton. More particularly, the Bissa Hill deposit is located within the Sabce shear zone, a regional structure which extends for more than 30 kilometres on the property. Gold mineralization is associated with sulphide mineralization and quartz veining hosted in a strongly altered, deformed sedimentary package. The main zone of mineralization forms a northeast trending tabular body steeply dipping to the north.
High River is completing a US $2.4 million drilling programme at the Bissa project. A combination of core, RC and RAB drilling for a total of approximately 34,000 meters is testing the southwest extension of the Bissa Hill deposit, extension of the Bissa Southwest zone and other targets within the Bissa-Gonglou corridor along the Sabce shear zone. The objective of this drilling programme is to provide the information required to calculate a new resource estimate for the Bissa property by early 2006 and build enough resources to support a mining operation.
Latest results:
Maps and Sections Bissa Southwest Bissa-Gonglou Corridor Bissa Hill Deposit South Extension Note: This section will be expanded as the Company releases results from its on going exploration programme. Bissa Hill deposit:
click here to view technical report. Maps and Sections
Five Priority Areas on the Bissa Group Permits The Gonglou target is located five km southwest of the Bissa Hill deposit along the Sabce shear zone, near the intersection with the northerly trending Yilou shear zone. The Gonglou site has been mined by artisanal miners. Exploration work from 2000 to 2001 included regional and detailed soil sampling, rock chip sampling, trenching (ZGT1-3; 292 m) and two fences of RAB drilling (ZKR 1-90). The trenching returned anomalous gold values along the entire length of the trenches. The RAB drilling, which was carried out by Randgold and Delta on two fences spaced 1 km apart, intersected several encouraging gold values in two zones in one of the fence lines. In 2004, Jilbey excavated a 340 m trench (5645.5E), which outlined two zones of low-grade gold mineralization (<2 g/t), and completed 197 RAB holes (ZBB series; 8,119 m) and 8 RC holes totaling 698 m. The RAB and RC drilling outlined four significant sub-parallel zones of gold mineralization extending from 50 m to 1 km. The best zone returned high-grade gold intercepts of 7 m of 5.84 g/t (RC ZBR-063), 6 m of 9.93 g/t (RAB ZBB-536) and 8 m of 8.34 g/t (RAB ZBB-713), and possibly extends to the zone encountered in trench 5645.5E. The second zone, located 220 m south of the first returned 8 m of 5.86 g/t in RAB ZBB-581C; the third zone cut 210 m further to the south intersected 16 m of 1.54 g/t (RAB ZBB-588), 13 m of 1.45 g/t (RC ZBR-065), 12 m of 2.87 g/t (RC ZBR-067), and 15 m of 1.46 g/t (RC ZBR-069); and the fourth zone located 60 m further south yielded 4 m of 7.09 g/t in RAB ZBB-744. Gonglou Highlights
The Bouly target is located approximately 10 km southeast of Bissa Hill adjacent to the Liliga shear zone on a north-northeast trending structure. Previous work by Randgold and North between 1995 and 1997 included 152 RAB holes (LIR series; 10,964 m), four trenches and three diamond drill holes (304 m). The RAB drilling outlined an extensive northeast-trending copper anomaly (>500 ppm), coinciding with a strong gold in soil anomaly (>500 ppb), covering an area of 800 m by 200 m. The subsequent three core holes drilled perpendicular to the strike of the anomaly at 100 meter intervals intersected wide zones of low-grade gold mineralization (0.4 to 0.5 g/t) over their entire lengths, but unfortunately were not analyzed for copper. The RAB fences drilled above these diamond drill holes had returned similar gold values. From 1997 to 2004, no further work was conducted on this promising target. In 2004, Jilbey drilled diamond drill hole NT04-01 to confirm the intersection of 63 m of 1.68 g/t gold and 18 m of 0.23% copper in RAB hole LIR-857 (72 m). NT04-01 returned 30.6 m averaging 2.5 g/t gold from 39.4 m and 41 m averaging 0.21% copper from 56 m in a hydrothermal breccia composed of altered, porphyritic mafic volcanic rocks. The hole is located approximately 50 m southwest of BODH2, which had returned 250 m of 0.4 g/t Au (not assayed for copper). The two 10 m trenches (TRA-B) excavated by Jilbey, approximately 900 m northeast of NT04-01, returned anomalous gold values from quartz veins. The interpretation of the data compiled to date indicates the potential for porphyry-type gold-copper mineralization at Bouly. Widespread gold mineralization associated with significant copper values (where analyzed for copper) in association with a hydrothermal breccia may be indicative of a large mineralized system controlled by a buried intrusive body. The airborne geophysical data indicate a lobate anomalous magnetic response which seems to support this interpretation. No intrusive rocks have been encountered to date within the mineralized area, indicating a potentially significant volume for mineralization in the direction of the likely gold-copper source. Bouly Highlights
The Liliga target is located approximately 10 km south-southeast of the Bissa Hill gold deposit on the Liliga deformation corridor, at the northwest edge of a strong northeasterly trending magnetic anomaly. Liliga was one of the first targets investigated by the SJV. From 1994 to 1996, work carried out included soil sampling (200 m x 100 m grid; 50 m x 50 m grid), a ground magnetic survey, trenching, and RAB, RC and diamond drilling. Eight trenches (LIT1-8; 2,040 m) were excavated with the best zone in trench LIT1/2 yielding 55 m of 2.7 g/t gold. Randgold and North drilled 10 diamond drill holes (3,058 m) on five sections at 100 m to 160 m intervals along the shear zone. The best drill intersection yielded 36 m grading 4.27 g/t gold in core hole LDH-2. The RAB drilling (127 holes) that followed was carried out initially on a 400 m by 400 m grid with additional infill to 50 m defining two northeast-trending mineralized zones. Encouraged by these results, follow-up work by Jilbey in 2004 included one trench (818N; 235 m) positioned to reproduce the results of trench LIT1/2. Two significant gold mineralized sections of 31.8 m averaging 4.06 g/t (East Zone) and 11.5m averaging 13.04 g/t (West Zone) were intersected, these being associated with silicified metavolcanics and quartz veinlets. Two RC holes tested the two main mineralized zones encountered in the trench, with hole BLR-001 returning 12 m of 1.43 g/t gold and 10 m of 2.02 g/t gold from the East Zone, and hole BLR-002 intersecting 2 m of 1.04 g/t gold and 1 m of 2.06 g/t gold from the West Zone. Jilbey also carried out an Induced Polarization (IP) test survey over a one sq km area of the prospect. Results show that the East Zone appears to coincide with a north-northeast trending chargeable structure, but more drilling will be required to confirm this interpretation. Gold mineralization associated with altered felsic volcanic rocks occurs at numerous locations along several km of the northeast trending Liliga deformation corridor. In both the trenches and RC holes referred to above, the best assay results were associated with pervasive pyrite mineralization in broad zones of silicified felsic and mafic volcanics. If the geophysical interpretation is confirmed, the gold potential of the Liliga trend is considered excellent, as the regional soil anomaly extends for over a 10 km strike length. High River plans to complete geological mapping and prospecting at a scale of 1:5,000, soil sampling on a 100 m by 100 m grid and an IP survey over the Liliga-Bouly area (8 km x 5 km) before the end of the year in order to orient a drilling programme for early 2006. Liliga Highlights
The Gougre prospect is located 12 kilometres southwest of the Bissa Hill deposit, along the north-northeast Yilou shear zone, which splays off the Sabce shear zone. The gold occurrence is exposed in several areas around a low v-shaped hill facing east. To the north, the outcropping area exposes strongly foliated mafic volcanics, trending east-northeast, with abundant parallel deformed quartz veins and laminated silica alteration zones. The southern part is characterized by brecciated volcanics with intense quartz vein stockwork, trending predominantly west-northwest. The area was initially targeted from regional soil sampling conducted by Randgold and North in 1996-97. From 2000 to 2002, additional soil sampling, rock chip sampling, ground magnetics surveying (63.5 line km), and RC (19 holes; 980 m) and diamond drilling (3 holes; 512.4 m) were carried out on the property. The extensive rock chip sampling (> 425 samples conducted over regular grid patterns) defined a 100 m by 100 m high-grade gold mineralized zone associated with highly silicified brecciated volcanics containing millimetric to centrimetric quartz-pyrite veinlets. Follow-up RC drilling intersected significant results in four holes, under the anomalous rock chip results, over a strike length of 200 m. Three diamond drill holes followed (ZKD1-3; 512.45 m), with the first two at a spacing of 70 m testing the possible depth extension of the high-grade mineralization encountered on surface, and the third hole testing a magnetic anomaly at depth. Hole ZKD2 returned 6 m grading 3.68 g/t gold from surface in saprolite. The other gold mineralized zones encountered in the core holes were thin and carried values of less than 3 g/t. In 2004, Jilbey drilled one diamond drill hole GG04-01 (72 m) to duplicate the earlier gold intersection of 15 m grading 4.64 g/t in RC hole ZKC6 and intersected 16.35 m grading 4.13 g/t from 14.65 m. Jilbey also excavated three 60 m trenches: TR-A and TR-B, located 100 m southeast of GG04-01 and excavated at right angles to each other, intersected 11.8 m of 3.42 g/t gold and 5.1 m of 1.93 g/t gold, respectively, and TR-C, located above Jilbey's diamond drill hole, encountered 2 m of 1.48 g/t gold. The geological interpretation of the Gougre occurrence is that it represents a large northwest-trending dilational zone bounded by northeast-trending, right lateral faults. This interpretation may explain why the previous drilling failed to encounter the high-grade mineralization exposed in outcrops. Only a small portion of the dilational zone was tested and the prospect warrants additional drilling. Gougre Highlights
The Rofo-Lessa target is located 10 km east-southeast of the Bissa Hill deposit. From 1995 to 1997, Randgold and North conducted airborne and ground magnetic surveys, soil sampling (200 m x 100 m grid), rock chip sampling, trenching, and RAB and diamond drilling. Two zones of gold mineralization were identified, Rofo to the north and Lessa to the south, along a 3.5 km trend. Three phases of RAB drilling were completed over the Rofo-Lessa area for a total of 159 holes. The first phase (73 vertical holes) at a 400 m by 400 m spacing returned anomalous gold values. The second phase (51 vertical holes) carried out over a north-south trend on a 200 m by 100 m grid returned mixed gold results. The third phase (35 inclined RAB holes) was completed on short N310° fences testing a significant anomalous area obtained from the second phase drilling. The RAB drilling and soil geochemical surveys defined several sub-parallel north-south trending mineralized structures. At Lessa, gold grades up to 19.4 g/t were returned from rock chip samples taken east-northeast of the village of Lessa. The northeast-southwest rock chip gold anomaly defined is constrained to metasediments and volcaniclastics in an area that is wedged between an intrusive and volcanics. Gold intersections of 17 m of 0.6 g/t and 32 m of 0.46 g/t (including 7 m of 1.03 g/t) were returned from trench LET8 positioned on the gold occurrence. Gold intersections from RAB drilling cover an area 500 m by 500 m and coincide with the best rock chip sampling results. At Rofo, two sub-parallel north-south trending mineralized zones have been defined by RAB drilling and trenching. From the three sub-parallel trenches (455 m) excavated, trench RT1 and RT2 returned the best intercepts with 43 m averaging 6.9 g/t gold and 37 m averaging 1.44 g/t gold, respectively. Trench RT1 was positioned at the center of the Rofo soil anomaly and intersected a 50 m shear zone. The shear zones intersected in trenches RT2 and RT3 were not as strong. One of two diamond drill holes intersected a high-grade, sub-horizontal quartz vein assaying 2 m of 40 g/t gold. The Rofo area is characterized by folded (flexured) northeast-southwest trending stratigraphy truncated by a major north-south structure. Rofo-Lessa Highlights
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
©2005 High River Gold Mines Ltd. All Rights Reserved. | Disclaimer | Home |