Lakota nails down properties

While larger rivals are concentrating on bringing advanced projects to production, junior Lakota Resources (LAKO-C) has assembled a large land package for early-stage exploration in the Lake Victoria gold camp of northern Tanzania.

The company’s recent announcement that it had acquired six more properties in the region brings its total land holding in the area to 411 sq. km. Most of the properties are in the Ushirombo-Siga-Mabale greenstone belt, which hosts the Bulyanhulu and Golden Ridge gold deposits.

Bulyanhulu, which has been operated by Barrick Gold (ABX-T) since that company’s takeover of Sutton Resources, is scheduled to enter production later this year. Immediately to the east, Barrick and Tan Range Exploration (TNX-V) have started diamond drilling on the Itetemia gold prospect.

At Golden Ridge, Barrick and Pangea Goldfields (PGD-T) have outlined a resource of 15.5 million tonnes grading 3.2 grams per tonne at the property’s Main Zone deposit, as well as additional resources at outlying deposits.

Three of the Lakota properties are sandwiched into the area around the Itetemia-Bulyanhulu block. Two were acquired in 1998 from privately owned Tannor Resources and have yielded some gold values in laterite samples recovered by percussion drilling. The two others, Mwamba and Ngula Reef, both host small-scale craft mining.

Lakota has also picked up five properties in the southern and western part of the belt, including its Siga Hill property, adjoining Pangea’s Golden Ridge ground, and four — Ikina South, Ikina West, Ivuga and Mbogwe — along the Ushirombo section of the belt.