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Akoase project hits second high-grade gold intersection

25th January 2013

By: Zandile Mavuso

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor: Features

  

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The AKRC25D drilling hole at Perth-based Viking Ashanti’s Akoase gold project, in Ghana, which is targeting down-dip extensions of the higher-grade gold mineralisation at the Alimac prospect drilling site, has hit over 20 m down-hole width. This is a second high-grade intersection record at the project.

“Hole AKRC25D is part of a ten-hole programme, which comprises 756 m of reverse circulation (RC) drilling and 959 m of diamond core drilling, completed in mid-November last year. The 20.6 m intersection grading at 4.42 g/t gold was contained within a broader altered and mineralised zone of 39.6 m at 2.71 g/t gold, at a depth of only 70 m vertically below surface, at the highly prospective Alimac prospect.

“This intersection follows the success in March 2012, when hole AKRC195 recorded a high-grade intersection of 31 m grading at 7.84 g/t gold at less than 100 m depth. It is the highest-grade drill intersection recorded to date at the Akoase project,” says Viking Ashanti MD Peter McMickan.

He adds that two additional holes have returned encouraging grades and width intersections. Hole AKRC20D has intersected 4.7 m grading at 3.04 g/t gold and 6 m grading at 1.91 g/t gold, and hole AKRC24D has intersected 7 m grading at 2.39 g/t gold and 4 m grading at 1.65 g/t gold, confirming extensions of the mineralisation below existing drilling for at least a further 50 m down dip.

The fourth hole, AKRC27D, which has intersected 2 m grading at 2.44 g/t gold at the bottom of the hole, had to be terminated prematurely before passing through the target zone because of drilling difficulties.

In October last year, the company started a new programme at the project, which entailed about 1 000 m of diamond drilling and 1 000 m of RC drilling. The drilling is targeting down-dip and along-strike extensions of the new higher-grade zone at the project.

The cost of the Akoase exploration programme is about A$400 000 and it is funded by the company’s cash reserves, which were A$1.19-million at the end of September 2012.

“With the progress at the Akoase project site, Viking Ashanti aims to increase the gold resource at Akoase to over one-million ounces. We have defined a Joint Ore Reserves Commit- tee-classified inferred resource estimate of 18-million tons for 704 000 oz of contained gold. Once we have achieved a resource base of over one-million ounces, we will consider further developments of the project towards a mine.

With the current strong price and equities interest in West Africa, several corporate and farm-in opportunities for gold projects were reviewed during the last quarter of 2012,” says McMickan.

Currently, the company holds a strategic land position in the highly prospective Ashanti gold belt, which, he adds, has excellent mining infrastructure and services.

West Star/Blue River Joint Venture Project
The West Star/Blue River joint venture (JV) project is a major area of exploration and development for Viking Ashanti. It is located adjacent to the two-million-ounce Nzema gold mine at the south-western end of the Ashanti gold belt. The eastern boundary of West Star is close to an unconformity between the palaeoplacer units and lower Birimian units, while Blue River lies dominantly in lower Birimian rocks.

“The final assay results were received from samples relating to RC drill holes BRC 98, BRC 100 and BRC 101 at the Blue River gold project. These holes formed part of a 28-hole RC drilling programme completed at Blue River’s Jasmine prospect earlier in last year.

“These results have confirmed historical, broader-spaced drilling at the Jasmine prospect and have demonstrated that the 17 km strike of the Sanlam shear zone, held by Viking Ashanti, is a prime exploration target for further systematic evaluation,” adds McMickan.

He says that the rocks in the Blue River and West Star areas mainly consist of metasediments such as greywacke and carbonaceous shales. West Star is intruded with chlorite-rich diorite and granodiorite, with some felsic floats, and a varying quartz composition is suspected to be either monzomite or lamprophyres.

The West Star and Blue River properties are subject to JV agreements with local Ghanaian companies, with Viking Ashanti earning 100% of the rights to all hard-rock gold mineralisation.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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