Samax reports gold find in Congo

Samax Gold (SMX-T) has intersected what it describes as significant gold mineralization at its 85%-owned Mougongo prospect in Congo.

Drill hole 4 cut 28.5 metres grading 3.7 grams of the yellow metal (from 39.3 to 67.8 metres), while hole 5, drilled 50 metres away on the same cross-section, returned 18.8 metres of 3.8 grams gold (from 60.5 to 79.3 metres).

The mineralization is open in all directions and occurs in intensely silicified quartzite containing abundant iron oxide and pyrite.

This initial drilling phase was designed to test the

1.5-km-long-by-20-metre-wide silicified core of a large alteration system at the head of a group of well-worked streams from which local workers are now producing gold. Five similar systems are known to exist in the same 10-km-long structural corridor.

To date, all gold in the Mayombe belt has been produced from high-grade alluvial deposits.

Samax has thus far identified 21 alteration systems in three separate districts within its 6,500-sq.-km licences, which cover the entire 180-km length of the Mayombe belt.

The company believes the alteration patterns are typical of epithermal gold systems whose formation may be associated with the first opening of the Atlantic. “If so,” says CEO Michael Martineau, “this would be a new ore type for Africa and a technical coup for Samax, with important economic consequences.”