Golden Rim Resources Ltd today announced that it has executed an agreement with Epsilon Gold Mines Ltd (Epsilon) to acquire 90% of the Korongou gold project in Burkina Faso. The transaction is subject to the finalisation of Golden Rim’s due diligence. This is expected to be completed by mid-February 2013. Epsilon is a Burkinabe company. The Korongou Project covers part of a highly prospective Lower Proterozoic Birimian “Samira Hill” greenstone belt in Burkina and is traversed by a significant NE-trending fault splay which is connected to the major Markoye Fault system. This fault system controls a number of major gold deposits in Burkina Faso, such as Kiaka (5 Moz gold), Bomboré (5.2 Moz gold) and Essakane (5.6 Moz gold), and Samira Hill (2 Moz gold) in western Niger.

Extensive Gold Mineralisation Identified
More than 70km of potential gold mineralised structures have been mapped by Epsilon or exposed in artisanal workings within the Korongou Permit and these structures are ready for drilling. The grade of the gold mineralisation within these structures can be very high. Epsilon have rock chip sample results up to 313 g/t gold. Artisanal miners have exploited gold from several small bonanza pits which graded in excess of 1,000 g/t gold.

BG Prospect
More than 20 gold mineralised, parallel, NE-trending shear structures have been identified in trenches and pit within a 1km wide corridor in the eastern portion of the Korongou Permit. This area is known as the BG Prospect. The mineralisation lies in a package of highly altered volcanic and volcanoclastic host rocks and is associated with a major gold-in-soil anomaly and a prominent 6km long dilational structural jog along a regional NE-trending shear zone. Two of these gold mineralised shear structures (MCA and MCB) have been the focus of artisanal mining and the small scale mining conducted by Epsilon since 1996. The MCA and MCB structures are roughly parallel and lie 3m to 15m apart. They have been traced for a strike length of approximately 2km. Apart from the NE-trending shear structures, gold mineralisation is also found in ESE-trending extensional gash quartz veining, in stock work quartz veining between the structures, and disseminated in the highly altered surrounding host rocks. The main MCA structure ranges in width from 6m to 30m. Bulk sampling by Epsilon has returned an average grade of 7.1 g/t gold. The MCB structure ranges in width from 8m to 14m and Epsilon bulk sampling returned an average grade of 3.6 g/t gold. Four major ESE-trending extension gash veins have been identified. They extend from 200m to 2km in length and up to 9m in width.

KK Prospect
The KK Prospect lies in the central portion of the Korongou Permit and covers 4 main linear gold mineralised shear structures that have been mapped over 2km to 5km. The width of these mineralised structures range from 1m to 10m. Rock chip sample results up to 108 g/t gold have been obtained by Epsilon.

Small Scale Mining
Epsilon has produced approximately 20,000oz of gold from the permit area since 1997. Since 2007, Epsilon has operated a small 10 tonne/day plant (gravity + cyanidation) at Korongou. Oxide ore is extracted from a number of small pits to 8m depth. Their plant recovery to date has averaged between 80% to 85%.

Previous Exploration
Exploration work conducted by Epsilon within the Korongou Permit includes soil and rock chip sampling, geological mapping, trenching, bulk pit sampling, and limited drilling. Epsilon collected 4,237 soil samples on a grid pattern of 200m x 40m over the main mineralised corridor (16km x 2km). A major gold-in-soil anomaly (>84 ppb gold) covering an area of 6km x 2km was outlined in the NE portion of the Korongou Permit and is associated with the gold mineralised structures within BG Prospect.
Epsilon has completed over 7km of trenching at the BG Prospect. This work has outlined at least 20 gold mineralised, parallel, NE-trending shear structures within a 1km wide corridor.

A bulk sampling program was conducted by Epsilon with 16,000 tonnes of ore extracted from 14 shallow pits at the BG Prospect and processed in their gravity/CIL plant. The plant recovered 4.3 g/t gold. With a plant recovery of 85% the head grade of this mineralisation was 5.4 g/t gold. A limited aircore/reverse circulated program was attempted by Epsilon in 2010 at the BG Prospect to test for depth extensions to the MCA and MCB vein structures. The drilling rig was too small and underpowered for the program and the holes failed to reach the targeted vein strucures. Of interest however were intercepts such as 18m at 1.4 g/t gold, 17m at 1.0 g/t gold and 10m at 2.1 g/t gold that were obtained from low grade satellite structures adjacent to the the MCA and MCB structures. Epsilon has conducted soil sampling (800m x 100m) and mapping on the Gandeni Permit. Several significant gold-in-soil anomalies were outlined and require follow-up.