EXPLORATION ROUNDUP — Juniors launch search for Carlin-type gold

Nothing succeeds like success, which is why Charles Fipke is applying an adapted version of the technology he used to discover diamondiferous kimberlites in Canada’s North to the international search for “Carlin-type” gold deposits.

Fipke’s Dia Met Minerals (DMM.A-T) has entered a joint-venture agreement with Goldtex Resources (GXR-A), which recently announced it will spend $2.8 million in a second-phase exploration program in Nevada. The program will entail drilling on 10 gold properties, geochemical and geophysical sampling on 53 targets, plus exploration for more targets.

In early November, Fipke launched Canadian Mountain Minerals (CYM-A), the second resource company that he has taken public. The first was Dia Met, now the 29% owner of the Lac de Gras diamond mine, being placed in production by partner BHP Minerals.

Canadian Mountain Minerals (CMM) has obtained the exclusive right to explore for mineral resources in a 50,000-sq.-km land position in the southwestern Arabian country of Yemen. A first-phase program has already been completed, with more than 3,000 samples collected, and target definition and drilling are expected to start in 1997.

Fipke is the largest shareholder of CMM, with 4.9 million shares. Goldtex also holds a sizable equity interest (3 million shares), as well the right to earn a 30% working interest in the exploration venture in Yemen.

The main exploration method used by both companies is a sophisticated heavy mineral sampling technique, initially developed by C.F. Minerals (Fipke’s private company) and Discovery Consultants. Fipke made use of a variation of this technology to identify the kimberlite field at Lac de Gras in the Northwest Territories, as well as to help differentiate between diamondiferous and barren kimberlites without drilling.

He says the techniques used to identify Carlin-type gold deposits draw on the experience he gained in Nevada during the 1970s, while working as a consultant for Superior. At that time, heavy-mineral techniques were used to identify the fine gold associated with these Nevada deposits, as well as their typical pathfinder elements, namely antimony, arsenic, and mercury.

This experience, combined with more recent work, enabled Fipke to put together a geological and geochemical database for most of Nevada’s gold deposits.

Other companies took over the effort when Superior pulled out. However, Discovery has kept up the search, finding numerous deposits for its mining company clients. “They have at least four pits in production to their credit,” Fipke points out.

Goldtex’s initial sampling program in Nevada, completed at a cost of more than $1 million, was conducted by Discovery Consultants, prepared by C.F.

Minerals laboratory in Kelowna, and analyzed by Activation Labs at McMaster University, which employs neutron activation technology mineral detection.

That program employed heavy-mineral technology, which has been advanced considerably since Fipke’s early days in Nevada. The technology involves sophisticated, proprietary techniques that take into account the entire mineral suite associated with various deposit types, as well as whether or not they are sulphides or oxides. Goldtex says the technology enhances the process of finding new prospects, while avoiding the costly follow-up of spurious gold anomalies. The company is preparing to drill 11 targets at 10 properties in Nevada, with about 50,000 ft. planned for the next phase of work.

The lure of Yemen

The potential for diamonds, rather than gold, was what originally attracted Fipke to Yemen. “I saw a 1995 report by Watts, Griffis & McOuat that showed an old craton there, so I decided to take a look at it for diamonds,” he explains.

While in the country, which was then recovering from a recent civil war, Fipke spent time researching this theory, only to be disappointed. “I didn’t like Yemen as a place for diamonds, as there is a metamorphic overprint that would have destroyed them.”

At a meeting with Yemen’s minister of energy, where he asked about Yemen’s potential for diamonds, Fipke explained that he did not like the risks involved in that effort. He did admit, however, that he found the country’s overall geology “interesting.”

The minister told Fipke that he had heard similar comments from other Canadians who had visited the country, “got all excited [but] then left and never came back.”

The minister encouraged Fipke to give more consideration to the prospect of exploring in Yemen, which he did. He soon came to the conclusion that portions of the country had many similarities to Nevada, including Paleozoic and Mesozoic sediments dominated by sandstones, huge “basin and range” faults and arsenic-antimony systems. An Archean belt was also identified, which was considered prospective for other deposit types.

Negotiations started and CMM ended up with a prospecting area that represents about 15% of the country’s land mass. “We got a good deal,” Fipke says. “We have to pay a 36% tax on net profits, plus a 1% net smelter return royalty, but we are eliminated from all other taxes, except income taxes on employees.” Fipke brought in 10 Canadian samplers, hired and trained 30 locals (including six geologists) and began a sampling program. “We sampled everything we could with 4-wheel trucks and then went in with a military helicopter. We had no real problems, and the people were friendly.”

Fipke says his interest in Yemen was renewed after reading Pierre Lassonde’s The Gold Book, which mentioned that gold mines in Yemen were probably the source of the fabled wealth of the Queen of Sheba, who reigned in the 10th century B.C.

It was soon noticed that some of the samples contained slag and other ancient debris, which suggested that some of areas sampled might be near historic mines. Satellite radar imagery was carried out in certain areas, and Fipke says this work revealed ancient roads and workings beneath 5-6 metres of sand. “It was pretty exciting stuff,” he recalls.

CMM and Goldtex are now gearing up for their second-phase program in Yemen.

It will include follow-up heavy mineral sampling of anomalous gold occurrences using a combination of soil and rock-chip sampling. Once anomalies have been identified, a program of mapping, soil and rock sampling, trenching and geophysics will be carried out.

Fipke says Yemen remains relatively unexplored, with only 18 prospects ever having been drilled in the country. There are few mineral occurrences that can be classed as prospects or deposits.

Four deposit types

CMM and Goldtex have identified at least four types of gold mineralization in Yemen:

* Sediment-hosted, disseminated gold mineralization, similar to that found in Nevada, is generally associated with rifting. In Yemen, the Sabatayn rift system, with their Marib Al Jawf and Balhaf grabens, provide high-angle fault structures, widespread intrusive and volcanic activity, and gold-enrichment provenance from which the sediments were derived;

* Volcanic-hosted gold mineralization would seem to be present, based on recently identified geochemical anomalies;

* Gold in Precambrian rocks has been identified in west-central Saudi Arabia, and similar geochemical anomalies in Yemen suggest there is potential for quartz-vein or stockwork-type gold mineralization;

* Supergene gold deposits are present in Saudi Arabia, and evidence of gossan occurrences, several of which show anomalous gold in bedrock grab samples, is present in Yemen.

The partners note that, in addition to gold, there are more than 100 base metal occurrences in the country, 20 of which can be considered prospects or deposits.

Zinc-lead occurrences are reported to be widespread; the most significant form an 850-km-long belt in carbonate rocks within, and adjacent to, the Ramlast As Sabatayn fault. The Jibali deposit is considered the most significant, as it contains 6.7 million tonnes grading 12.7% zinc and 1.5% lead, plus 103 grams silver.

As well, a volcano-sedimentary belt, which hosts polymetallic deposits in Saudi Arabia, continues southward into Yemen. The town of Sadah has numerous copper prospects similar to the Masane deposit in Saudi Arabia, which has reserves of 7 million tonnes grading 5.1% zinc and 1.4% copper, plus 1.25 grams gold and 41.7 grams silver.

Several geological environments in northwestern Yemen are believed to be prospective for nickel and tin-tungsten deposits.

CMM says it is focusing on micron-size gold of the Nevada type, though the program will also encompass techniques designed to search for evidence of deposits of carbonate-hosted zinc-lead-silver, volcanic-hosted copper and copper-zinc, and nickel.

In March of next year, a third-phase program will begin, which will consist of more follow-up work, as well as 6,000 metres of core drilling of mineralized targets. This phase is expected to cost US$2.5 million.