April 22, 1998
Geological Program Completed In March 1998
STARPOINT GOLDFIELDS INC ("STS-V")
- Geological Program Completed In March 1998
F.R. Llott, President of Starpoint Goldfields Inc., is pleased to provide the following information on the geological program completed in March 1998 on its Ngayu West Concession in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Company has received the assay results and the report from the independent geologist Gordon Richards, P.Eng., who headed the work program. This program was designed to corroborate some of the historical mining data of the Belgians and the French and provide data for future work.
43 rock and 30 soil samples were taken. All samples collected contained gold and 10 of the 73 samples collected contained in excess of 2 grams per ton. This supports the information received on the property obtained from the Royal Museum of Mining in Belgium and is outlined in the Richards' Report of January 12, 1998.
The following is the Summary and the Conclusions and Recommendations from Gordon Richards' report of this program.
SUMMARY
Ngayu West Concession was visited in February and March 1998 to determine access and begin exploration of the Mambati gold target described in a January 12, 1998 report by the writer that was based on information at The Royal Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium. A gold quartz vein system containing visible gold is exposed for over 250 metres in each of three separate collinear areas along a 7 km long eluvial gold resource defined in 1948 by Forminiere, a past concession holder.
Recent mining activity has opened up the gold quartz vein system though exposure of the main vein, said by present day miners to be ten to twenty cm wide, is obscured by backfilling. Four to eight cm wide pieces of quartz containing much visible gold were mined from one vein and seen on site. Current bedrock mining is developed to a maximum nine metres below surface at which depth the rock is too difficult to break and mining is terminated. Approximately one cm wide veins, spaced 10 to 40 cm apart, lie within an east-west near vertical saprolite chlorite sericite schist. 43 continuous rock chip samples of this saprolite returned values of 10 ppb Au over widths of about one metre. Ten samples were in excess of 2.0 g/t Au. The highest grade obtained was 49.8 g/t Au from a 0.5 metre sample of saprolite with two, one-cm quartz veinlets. Maximum width of bedrock exposed anywhere along the vein system is about 4 metres at the westernmost quartz vein locality and about two metres at the easternmost locality.
The vein system should be further explored to determine average grades and widths and continuity along strike and to depth. Potential for a bulk tonnage open pitable gold reserve exists, not necessarily encompassing the known vein system and should be investigated by digging two continuous trenches several hundred metres wide down into saprolite along two lines aligned in a north-south direction perpendicular to schistosity and contained quartz veinlets. Two exploration targets close to Mambati, with potential for large tonnage disseminated gold deposits, have been selected for immediate exploration.
Access was determined to be easiest using motorbikes from Isiro, a city of 200,000, 80 km north of the Concession and with nearly daily jet service from Kinshasa. The road, established in colonial times, between Isiro and Mambati is 150 km long and can be driven from Isiro by 4-wheel drive vehicle to Babonde about half this distance. As exploration on the Concession expands, this road could be recovered fairly easily by brushing out light overgrowth, re-establishing ditches and small bridges, crowning and possibly surfacing the road with lag and putting in a ferry over the Nepoko river. An airstrip at Mambati, now covered with bush, could be cleaned off using local labour and would be suitable for use by light aircraft.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The Mambati target has been shown to be a gold quartz vein system with one to two main veins containing visible gold measuring ten to twenty centimetres wide within lower grade gold-bearing schists ranging from 0.1 to 8 g/t Au. Specimens of quartz vein material containing much visible gold were seen and one chip sample across 0.5 m of schist with two quartz veinlets assayed 49.85 g/t Au.
Gold quartz veins have been mined recently and previously by Belgian interests in three areas over lengths of 250 metres each and could be much more extensive, perhaps one and one-half km long each, as the eluvial gold resource pattern is that long in each area of vein occurrence.
Potential for a large tonnage lower grade open pitable gold reserve may be possible. Near vertical east-west striking sericite-chlorite schist contains the main quartz veins as well as numerous small veins reported by the Belgian placer miners to occur over a 320 metre width at one location. Belgians also reported banded iron formation from several pits that outlined the eluvial gold resource. Association of large tonnage stratabound gold deposits with banded iron formation is well known world-wide by economic geologists.
A single soil sampling line across tee eluvial gold resource does not pinpoint the gold quartz vein being mined but does form a 600 m wide zone of better than 50 ppb Au with contiguous highs of 1000 and 665 ppb Au. Interpretation of this wide pattern is impossible without more detailed knowledge of bedrock gold values. This pattern could be caused by lateral migration of gold in the soil away from the known vein system or it could reflect some other pattern of gold mineralization in bedrock such as one amenable to open pit mining methods.
Future work at Mambati should be aimed at determining the grade of the schists away from the known veins. It is recommended to dig two several hundred metre long trenches using local labour down to saprolite and taking continuous rock chip samples along their length. These trenches should be located across the Mococco and Belgian veins described above. This work may have to wait until the dry season of December to March in order to avoid filling such a trench with water as drainage is poor in the nearly flat valley.
Two exploration targets, identified as Imva and Nenjame, both with past extensive alluvial and minor eluvial gold production are associated with gold quartz vein occurrences and banded iron formation and have been selected for the next phase of exploration because of their proximity to Mambati. Other targets more distant from Mambati will be explored at a later date. It is proposed to explore these targets by collecting soil samples and mapping geology on a grid. Line spacing is 200 m with soil sample intervals of 50 m to begin, tightening sample density if warranted. It is proposed to collect samples of a fixed volume at each site for panning, weighing and recording gold in the field. Some lines should have routine soil samples collected for comparative analyses with field results. It is recommended to review all the data available on the concession to identify other exploration targets for future work and visit these sites during the course of the above work.
Gordon Richards, along with Robert Fouty of Earthworks Methodology of Edmonton, an alluvial and logistic expert with many years' experience in site preparation for mining operations, will return to the Concession in the Democratic Republic of Congo to begin implementing these recommendations in early May.
TEL: (604) 688-6838 F.R. Llott, President FAX: (604) 688-6839 TOLL FREE: 1-800-852-8885
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This Report Updated by Canstock at 7:06:08 Pacific Time
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