VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Southern Africa-focused gold producer Galane Gold says it plans to undertake an exploration programme next year to investigate if there is a down dip and to note the possible extent of the ‘C Reef’ strike beyond the current mined area within the active underground working areas of the Mupane mine, in Botswana.

The TSX-V-listed company on Monday announced that prospective drives in its Tau underground mine have led to the discovery of the potential extension of the Tau orebody at depth.

"This could prove to be a significant discovery and of potential importance for the long-term future of Mupane once more studies and economic analysis can occur and be reported on. We had planned to start looking for the potential extension of Tau at depth in 2017 and so this was a positive surprise to intersect the potential extension so early and therefore be in a position to incorporate it into our current mining plan,” commented CEO Nick Brodie.

The company recently reviewed historic exploration data and observed anomalous intersections that were structurally displaced from the main Tau orebody and sub-outcropping beyond the interpreted Western dyke limit. These intersections have not been incorporated into the existing resource model.

Galane mined a prospect drive at the 820RL level, 170 m below surface, to investigate the anomalous mineral intersection and, in doing so, uncovered a new mineralised zone (C Reef).

Since it first intersected the C Reef, Galane has completed about 265 m of on-reef development on three consecutive levels to determine the strike extent of the C Reef.

At 820RL the strike extent was found to be 60 m; at 800RL the strike extent increased significantly to 135 m; at 780RL, Galane is currently mining along strike and a total of 70 m of strike has been exposed. On the 820 and 800 levels, the C Reef widths varied along strike from a minimum of about 2 m, up to a maximum of 7 m. Development channel sampling on the intersected grade on the 820 level was 4.78 g/t gold and, on the 800RL level, was 2.51 g/t gold. At 780RL the intersected grade is 3.66 g/t for the 70 m of exposed strike length.

Further to this, at 780RL the C Reef has also widened significantly to a width of about 15 m, the company reported.

To date, a total of 19 380 t of ore has been extracted from the C Reef horizon at an average mined grade of 3.44 g/t. The C Reef’s ore characteristics are similar to those of the main Tau orebody, being a ‘disseminated style’ of mineralisation in well-bedded, silicified quartz-rich parts of the graphitic iron formation. Further, the metallurgical testwork conducted at the Mupane metallurgical laboratory has indicated similar recoveries to the main Tau orebody.

Galane noted that there had yet to be sufficient exploration on the C Reef to extrapolate that the C Reef extends beyond the current mined area.

“If, through further exploration and analysis, we confirm that this is the extension of the Tau orebody at depth, it will be a further vindication of management's decision over two years ago to commence the underground operation,” Brodie noted.

Galane in July made a development decision for the first-phase restart of production at the Galaxy gold mine, in South Africa, up to a target of 60 000 oz/y.