Kashgar, China — Vancouver-based
At the Sawayaerdun project, in the northwest, the company has established continuity of gold mineralization in a wide zone that transcends across the border into Kyrgyzstan, and on the eastern coast, in Shandong province, the company is setting out to explore the extent of gold mineralization on its Muping and Fushan properties.
Majestic is headed by geologists Rod Husband, president, and Stephen Kenwood, corporate secretary. The chairman is Robert Hunter, co-founder of the Hunter Dickinson group of mining companies.
The principals struck a deal with Richard’s Resource Technologies for the exclusive right to evaluate joint-venture opportunities in China early in 2003. Richard’s Resource is headed by a Western-trained metallurgist of Chinese descent, who has recommended more than 20 exploration targets, including Sawayaerdun and Muping-Fushan.
More recently, Majestic raised $2 million through a private placement to continue its exploration programs in the country.
The 11.4-sq.-km Sawayaerdun property is 240 km northwest of the city of Kashi in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang translates as “new frontier”).
Kashi, also known as Kashgar, is an ancient city on the Silk Road, which for centuries served as an important trading route for the Muslim Uygurs, who constitute half the population of the region.
Under an agreement with the Xinjiang Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, Majestic can earn a 90% interest in a joint-venture company by funding all exploration and development to the tune of US$2 million over four years.
Sawayaerdun is in the South Tian Shan orogenic belt, which continues westward into Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, where it hosts the large gold deposits known as Kumtor, Zarmtan and Murantau.
The main structural trend on the property, known as Zone IV, trends west across the China-Kyrgyzstan border to the Savoyardy project, in which Vancouver-based
The Chinese brigades had prepared a historical inferred resource of more than 26 million tonnes grading 1.75 grams gold, and 1.4 million oz. gold are believed to be contained in 2,000-metre section of Zone IV on the Sawayaerdun property. The brigade also reported three gold zones that averaged 4.37 metres grading 1.37 grams gold, based on surface trenching.
On the property, disseminated sulphides are hosted in Lower Silurian metasediments comprising slate and carbonaceous phylite in fault contact with Devonian carbonates. Some 22 mineralized zones have been outlined. The ore minerals include pyrite, pyrrhotite, arsenopyrite, stibnite and chalcopyrite. Alteration includes quartz, muscovite, siderite.
Majestic Gold completed 1,600 metres of drilling (five holes) at Zone IV, and results confirm the grade and extent of the zone at depth.
Narrow zone
“The hole intersected between 200 and 300 metres of the zone,” Majestic geologist David Pollard told The Northern Miner and assorted analysts during a tour of the Sawayaerdun project. “The two rigs are a bit of a problem, because they could only drill eighty-five degrees. Since the mineralization is inclined at seventy-five degrees, we are obviously getting a narrow zone that ends up being 3.5 times the width. There is a small amount of chalcopyrite associated with pyrrhotite, but it seems uneconomic at this point.”
Before drilling, Majestic tested 850 metres of the strike length by cutting 17 trenches at 50-metre intervals. The trenches on surface were highlighted by 17 metres grading 2.12 grams gold, 39 metres of 1.47 grams, 28 metres of 1.14 grams, 39 metres of 1.03 grams, 43 metres of 1.5 grams, 53 metres of 1.57 grams, 23 metres of 1.21 grams, 13 metres of 1.82 grams, and 13 metres of 2.1 grams. Most of these zones remain open in at least one direction.
Majestic’s drill results, released during the first week of November, showed five holes intersected gold mineralization in a central 350-metre strike length of Zone IV. The recent drilling tested depths of 50 to 340 metres.
Highlights from assays of the drillcore include:
— Hole SWD04-01 — 29 metres of 2.17 grams gold from 252 metres depth;
— Hole SWD04-02 — 54 metres of 1.54 grams gold from 314 metres depth;
— Hole SWDO4-03 — 50 metres of 1.43 grams gold from 170 metres depth;
— Hole SWD04-04 — 45 metres of 2.07 grams gold from 168 metres and;
— Hole SWD04-05 — 60 metres of 1.19 grams gold from 65 metres depth.
True widths are estimated to be about 70% of the cored length.
At least two of the new holes were drilled within 50 metres of holes drilled by the Xinjiang government agency that returned high grades over significant intervals.
Three bulk samples are enroute to Canada for metallurgical testing.
During the tour, The Miner looked for evidence of Carlin-style mineralization, as had been suggested by the initial geologic report commissioned by Majestic. But although the gold mineralization is hosted in sediments, it appears to be largely controlled by structures in a strong, fairly wide shear zone near an anticline, as opposed to being stratabound.
Between 1983 and 1999, various geological brigades evaluated the size, shape and character of the mineralized zones in an effort to determine the potential value. According to a 2002 study by the U.S. Geological Survey, the Sawayaerdun deposit contains more than 100 tonnes of gold, with an inferred resource exceeding 300 tonnes.
Previous trenching and adit work by the brigade indicated that a section of Zone IV averaged 2 grams gold over an average thickness of 30 metres.
The recent exploration at Sawayaerdun was designed to confirm existing mineralization on the property and focused on the higher-grade Zone IV, a northeast-trending structure that can be traced on surface for more than 4 km. The sheared structures dip steeply to the northwest. Zone IV is the most thoroughly explored mineralized structure on the property and has been traced for more than 3 km along surface.
The company wants to bulk-sample portions of a large pile of Zone IV material that was heap-leached on the valley floor at Sawayaerdun. Bulk sampling would provide a good representative sample and help the company come up with a target figure of how many ounces of gold could be extracted and what size of operation would be economic. The property is accessible year-round, though temperatures do reach extremes.
Trenching has outlined three further sub-parallel gold zones up to 3,000 metres long in the northeast-trending anticlinal structure, namely Zones I, II and XI.
Muping
In eastern China’s Shandong province, Majestic Gold has entered into agreements on the Fushan and Muping projects. These are on the Jiaodong peninsula, a large area of granitoid-hosted lode-gold deposits. This region accounts for about 25% of the country’s annual gold production, which was around 250,000 oz. in 2003.
More than 95% of the gold in Shandong province is hosted in Mesozoic granitoids, which intrude late Archean metamorphic basement rocks. Gold mineralization is mainly associated with northeast-trending regional faults and related secondary fractures in the granitoid intrusions or at the contacts.
Majestic Gold can earn a 60% interest in the Muping property from China Shandong Muping Gold Mine by spending the Chinese equivalent of US$4.3 million on exploration and development over four years. The agreement includes 15 exploration and two mining licences that cover more than 75 sq. km in the northeastern part of the Jiaodong Peninsula — specifically in the Zhao-Ye gold belt, near three northeastly trending faults that cut Archean and Proterozoic basement rocks intruded by granites.
On two of the licences, gold is being extracted from q
uartz veins. Sulphide-rich shears form in Cretaceous conglomerates that overlie the basement rocks. The veins grade from 5 to 9 grams while the sulphide-rich shears range from 3 to 5 grams gold per tonne.
One of the licences, the Song Jiagou, includes the Fayunkuang mine, a 300-tonne-per-day operation where ore is being mined from four levels underground.
Gold mineralization is hosted by a fault zone in Upper Cretaceous conglomerates, which overlie Proterozoic rocks. Fine gold occurs with disseminated pyrite in the matrix that binds the conglomerate.
The other mining operation is on the Houzhuang Heiniu licence, where a 200-metre-deep shaft and four working levels are following a mineralized fault zone. Massive sulphides from the dump of the mine yielded assays of 15 grams gold in addition to significant lead and zinc.
The Houzhuang Heiniu and two other licenses cover a significant portion of the Jinniushan fault belt, which extends over 7,500 metres and is considered the most prospective belt for gold mineralization in the area.
Small-scale mining in small shafts, trenches and open pits is also under way on three other licences.
The company is keen on exploring the rest of its Muping land position using Western-style exploration models and techniques, including mapping, sampling, induced-polarization surveys, and diamond drilling.
The Fushan property is near Yantai City. An agreement with China Shandong Fushan DJY Gold Mine allows Majestic to earn a 60% stake in the project by financing all exploration and development costs. The company has committed to spending at least US$2.4 million on exploration and development over four years.
The Fushan agreement covers nearly 20 sq. km of exploration licences underlain by Cretaceous granites, where gold is hosted in shear zones.
The property is underlain by Proterozoic-aged Jingshan Group rocks, which are largely sillimanite biotite schist. Three areas of gold mineralization in two adits and the Rennshiwang South zone include shear mineralization within gneisses or intrusives. Gold grades reported by the Chinese include up to 4.23 grams gold over 8.5 metres in the Rennshiwang South zone.
Several surveys were recommended to test the extent of the mineralization between the Rennshiwang South and North adits. Over the next six months, Majestic wants to begin structural mapping, geophysics and drilling. “Once we have our business licence in place, we want to get going on this pretty quick,” said Husband.
Other Canadian companies combing the area around Yanti include Vancouver-based
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