Prospex adds to African portfolio

Prospex Mining (PRM-V) had added a smattering of early-stage exploration projects to its growing West African portfolio.

With the addition of the four new properties — Nimini West, Samalofila, Kindia and Belya — the company can now boast of having three drill-ready projects and three grassroots prospects in Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Sierra Leone.

The most advanced of the new properties is the Nimini West concession, a 56-sq.-km prospecting licence in eastern Sierra Leone. It is the only one of the four concessions which has seen previous drilling.

A small drilling program by a previous owner in 1982 identified a steeply dipping, gold-bearing structure stretching over 250 metres. The zone is open at depth and along strike.

Mineralization at Nimini West is hosted within an Archean greenstone belt with associated banded iron formations.

Prospex holds a 75% interest in Nimini Mining, the local company that owns the concession.

Although the project is promising, Prospex was compelled to halt its work there under force majeure provisions. Political instability and civil war have been the norm in Sierra Leone for the last several years, although some light has appeared at the end of the tunnel.

Last October, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council of Sierra Leone reached a peace agreement with the Economic Organization of West Africa that provides for the reinstatement of the democratically elected government of President Tejan Kabbah within six months. The signing of the agreement, which called for the disarmament and demobilization of armies, appears to have put an end to hostilities.

Upon the reinstatement of the elected government, Prospex could begin drilling almost immediately, says Prospex President Stan Hamilton.

Prospex is also waiting for the Sierra Leone government to grant it the rights to explore the neighboring Nimini Hills concession, which is east of, and slightly smaller than, Nimini West.

The next drill-ready target is on a joint venture between Prospex and the AGEM Alliance on the Tinga gold property, in Ghana.

The AGEM Alliance is a partnership of Ashanti Goldfields (ASL-N) and Iamgold (IMG-T).

The 152-sq.-km Tinga prospecting licence, in which Prospex is earning an 80% interest, is situated in the Bole district of northwestern Ghana.

Mineralization occurs within granitic rocks surrounded by Birimian-age sedimentary rocks.

So far the Alliance has conducted US$200,000 worth of exploration on the property, locating a gold-in-soil anomaly measuring 1,200 by 200 metres, as well as a 900-metre-long zone defined by trenching.

Also in Ghana, Prospex is continuing work on the Antubia-Afere concession, which comprises 141 sq. km of ground along the Bibiani belt. On the Afere zone, Prospex found a gold-in-soil anomaly measuring 1,100 by 600 metres and confirmed it with trenching.

In Mali, the company controls the Samalofila concession, a 174-sq.-km prospecting permit, and the 8-sq.-km Kouremale concession, a petite mine permit situated close to the Guinea border, 30 km south of Samalofila.

The company has two promising grassroots targets in Guinea — Kindia and Beyla.

At Kindia, Prospex controls a prospecting permit covering 242 sq. km in the southwestern part of the country, 110 km northeast of the capital of Conakry.

Currently, artisanal miners produce gold from a placer operation on the Kilissi river, which cuts across the northern part of the property.

The property is underlain by lower Paleozoic to upper Proterozioc volcanic and sedimentary rocks.

Beyla, in the southwestern part of the country, is a 250-sq.-km prospecting permit underlain by high-grade metamorphic rocks and banded iron formations of Archean age.

In addition, Prospex has acquired several other prospects in Guinea through Mango Resources, a wholly-owned subsidiary. Mango is in the process of acquiring a 250-sq.-km prospecting permit called the Gaoual concession, a 250-sq.-km permit for the nearby Kifaya concession, as well as two concessions in the Siguiri area of eastern Guinea.

The Siguiri prospects are situated near the border of Mali, not far from the Samalofila and Kouremale prospects.