Geologist Charles Fipke has traversed some of the most inaccessible parts of the globe in his search for mineral deposits, with his biggest success being the discovery of economic diamond deposits in the Northwest Territories. Not content to rest on those laurels, the Canadian-born wanderer has turned his sights to the Middle Eastern country of Yemen, where he is on the trail of gold and base metal deposits, including an area believed to represent the ancient Queen of Sheba gold-mine workings.
Fipke’s latest junior,
Though results are not yet in hand, Cantex geologist John Churchill is encouraged by the silicified zones intersected in the first 60 metres of the first hole. A second hole encountered mechanical problems that have since been rectified. Cantex also is encouraged by a 100-metre-thick, silicified leach cap exposed by a bulldozer preparing access roads to the 10 target areas.
Meanwhile, drill-pad construction and road work are nearly completed at the Suwar copper-nickel-cobalt-platinum group metals deposit. Six drill sites are being built to test geophysical anomalies downdip from a highly mineralized, oxidized massive sulphide gossan.
Cantex also plans to drill the Dhi Bin area of zinc-lead-silver mineralization using a reverse-circulation rig. At the same time, crews will begin drilling at the site of the Queen of Sheba workings, in the Jabal Sabrayan project area, 170 km northeast of the capital city of Sana’a.
Local geologists have uncovered evidence of ancient mine workings at the Jabal Sabrayn area in small open-cuts and adits, some of which are surrounded by extensive dumps. The ground is littered with stone-grinding tools used in the extraction process.
The most prominent feature identified to date is a quartz vein that outcrops discontinuously as a series of saddle reefs. The 1-to-3-metre-thick vein has been mapped over 850 metres and is believed to have potential to extend a further 700 metres. Chip sampling along its length has returned values of 6 grams gold over 4.9 metres and 4.2 grams gold over a width of 0.3 metre. Two parallel vein structures have attracted the company’s interest, along with tailings dumps near the veins, where values of up to 10 grams have been returned.
Cantex is also exploring for diamonds in Greenland, in partnership with Fipke’s
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