JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed copper ores company Altus Strategies recently completed the first phase of an exploration programme at its 100% owned, 466 km² Zolowo gold project, in Lofa County, north-western Liberia.

Initial reconnaissance has identified over 50 alluvial gold mining sites; the largest mining site mapped to date is about 250 m long and 50 m wide.

“We are very encouraged by the significant number and scale of the artisanal alluvial gold mining operations discovered at Zolowo. It seems likely that the primary source for the gold is associated with the Archaean age greenstone belt that transects the licence for approximately 33 km,” CEO Steven Poulton said in a statement on Wednesday.

The belt sits on the same regional geological trend as the New Liberty gold mine, which is owned and operated by Avesoro Resources.

The Archaean greenstones of western Liberia are still relatively unexplored. This is despite their geological setting being analogous to many famous gold mines and camps, such as at Kerr-Addison, in Ontario; the Golden Mile, in Kalgoorlie; and Homestake, in the US.

“A follow-up systematic stream sediment programme is now being planned and we look forward to updating shareholders in due course,” said Poulton.

Zolowo was selected after comprehensive in-house analysis of available datasets, including geological maps, historic mineral occurrences and satellite imagery.

An initial reconnaissance exploration programme has also been completed at Zolowo.

The objective of this programme was to verify several potential artisanal mining sites, as interpreted from the remote sensing programme.

The prospecting work has confirmed the presence of numerous artisanal alluvial gold mining sites.

Over 50 separate workings have now been visited by Altus to date, clustered within the central part of the licence.

Of these, 35 were found to be active and the largest extended for about 250 m. At each working, up to 25 artisanal miners were found to be selectively mining gold-bearing gravels, often at the boundary between saprolite and bedrock.

It was reported that gold has been mined in this way from the Zolowo area since the 1930s. As part of the reconnaissance programme, a number of hard rock samples have been collected for assaying.