Goldbelt bulks up on West African projects

Goldbelt Resources (GLD-T) has further fortified its stature in West Africa.

The Toronto-based junior is quickly becoming a key player in Burkina Fasos emergence as a gold producing nation and has added to its heft in the country by finalizing an agreement with Barrick Gold (ABX-T, ABX-N) for all of its West African gold projects.

Initially announced at the end of February, news of the completion of the deal came on Oct. 11 — a day on which Goldbelt shares were trading 2 higher to $1.03 on 70,000 shares traded.

Not only does the deal give Goldbelt prospective properties in Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso, but it also gives it the chance to capitalize on geological work done by Barricks experienced geologists.

The assets include two exploration licenses in Guinea, nine exploration licenses and applications in Mali, and seven exploration licences in Burkina Faso.

While it will complete exploration programs in each country over a four year period the primary focus will still be Burkina Faso where the Kari project will be the first to see the drill.

Kari is part of a host of projects on the Hounde Greenstone belt a belt with a 130 km strike-length. Other gold occurrences at the project thus far are Pompe, Douhoun and Grand Espoir. Specifics of the drill program have not yet been released.

Barrick explored a 4 km gold-in-soil anomaly at Kari that returned 29 metres grading 2.4 grams gold per tonne from one hole and 60 metres grading 2.9 grams gold from another.

The deal between the two companies lets Barrick claw-back up to a 75% interest in any project at feasibility if a deposit is found with over 3 million oz. of gold. In that event Barrick would reimburse Goldbelt a multiple of the exploration expenditure. If it doesnt exercise its claw-back option, Barrick will retain a 2% net smelter return.

Barrick can also earn into projects that werent part of the deal. If a 3 million oz. deposit is found within an 80 km radius of any of the existing projects, Barrick can claw-back a 25% interest at feasibility. To do so Barrick would reimburse Goldbelt 100% of its exploration expenditure.

In a statement Goldbelts vice president of exploration, Peter Turner, says the deal gives Goldbelt the chance to “build upon Barrick’s excellent generative work in the most prospective gold corridors in West Africa in the hunt for large gold mines.

Goldbelt continues to push ahead on its flagship project, Inata, which sits roughly 400 km northeast of Hounde. It recently announced the completion of a feasibility study on the project, which outlined a 7 year mine life with 893,000 oz. of recoverable gold at a total cash cost of US$400 an oz.