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ChenchuMtn_22042008-sm.jpg
Location and Background
The Chenchu Prospecting License was held by Santa Fe Mining Inc. under license issued on 27 November 1996. Birim (now Volta) acquired the property by a Property Transfer Agreement signed on 4 June 1997.
The Chenchu Prospecting License is located in west central Ghana within the Brong Ahafo Region, between latitudes 7o55'N and 8o05'N and longitudes 2o10'W and approximately 2o20'W. It is located 20 km due north of Voltas regional field camp on the Bui Belt.
Geology and Mineralisation
The Chenchu Trend is a major northeast-oriented structural corridor extending across the whole of the strike length of the Bui Belt area from the southwest near Japekrom through Seikwa, Chenchu Mountain and Tombe to the Volta River in the north.
The Chenchu Property comprises of a thick and fairly homogeneous sequence of phyllites, schists, metagreywackes and, locally, metavolcaniclastics. The property is regularly crosscut by younger dolerite dykes which may have emplaced at block fault boundaries.
Typically mineralisation, as on the Ashanti, Asankrangwa, and Sefwi trends of Ghana, occurs in northeast-trending structures hosting quartz lodes and associated disseminated sulphide in altered and deformed wallrocks.
Exploration Strategy
Volta's strategy on the Chenchu Property aims to bring the Tombe Prospect to account by unlocking the geometrical relationships of the mineralised quartz lodes.
To date the following phases of activity have been achieved:
To date the following phases of activity have been achieved:
- Stream sediment sampling.
- Soil net (300m x 300m) and a multiple of follow-up soil grids (200m/400m x 25m/50m) sampling defined a 4km-long gold-in-soil anomaly.
- Multi-element geochemistry (neutron activation) enabled an assessment of the geochemical zoning on the Tombe-Parabu trend.
- Trenches have been dug for cross-strike geological information at various localities.
- A number of phases of core and RC drilling totaling 429 holes have investigated the full strike of the Tombe Prospect to a nominal drill fence spacing of 200m and to an average depth of less than 40 metres.
- Induced Polarisation (I.P.; 3 sq. km) and pole dipole geophysical surveys have been completed to elucidate the internal structure of the Tombe Prospect.
Tombe Target Area
Location
The Tombe Prospect is situated in the centre of the Chenchu Property and is aligned with the through-going northeast-oriented Tombe-Parabu shear zone. The gold-anomalous geochemical signature of this zone has been traced for over 40 kilometers along the shear zone.
Geology and Mineralization
The Tombe Prospect comprises of a thick stratigraphic sequence of highly sheared argillites, wackes and volcaniclastics which have been intruded by foliation-parallel felsic dykes and crosscutting dolerite dykes. Mineralization is generally associated with quartz lodes and/or sulphide (pyrite) in sites of high tectonisation within the soft sequence of lithologies. Albite, hematite, carbonate and silica alteration is intense in the mineralised zones. Mineralization is focused by competency contrasts in the structural corridors which provided the brittle-ductile regime conducive to the deposition of gold. Jogs, kinks and arcuations in the northeast-trending mineralized structures are evident at the belt-scale and also play a role in focussing mineralisation at the prospect scale. Structural observations suggest a late transpressive deformational event focused on pre-existing regional structures, including early thrust and wrench features. In detail, structural fabrics such as late crenulation cleavage development and associated kink and crenulation folds, intersection lineations, rodding and boudinage support these observations. It is expected that any future definition of the geometry of payshoots will correspond to these structural orientations and as such the structural mapping of such a prospect is very important to facilitate an understanding of the mineralisation and to enable subsequent resource modelling.
Exploration Strategy
The Tombe Prospect exhibits all the characteristics of being associated with a very significant mineralizing system. Drilling on the Central anomaly returned an average grade of approximately 0.4g/t over 300 meters, including intersections of 3.2m @ 15.6 g/t, 4m @ 4.5 g/t and 4m @ 6.3 g/t. Subsequent drilling at the Tombe North area returned intersections of up to 17m @ 4.47g/t and 17m @ 9.67g/t, which potentially represent plunging higher grade shoots. The geometry and extent of these higher-grade shoots will be the focus of future search on the license.
Drilling to date has highlighted numerous significant intercepts. The table below highlights the intercepts with grade-widths greater than 10 meter grams.
| HOLE |
UTM30N_E |
UTM30N_N |
RL |
From (m) |
To (m) |
Intercept |
Grade widths |
| CTR042 |
9240 |
26300 |
152.485 |
6 |
8 |
2m @ 5 g/t |
10.00 |
| CTR294 |
588184.3 |
890242.9 |
168.23 |
36 |
47 |
11m @ 0.91 g/t |
10.01 |
| CTR021 |
9200 |
26100 |
169.878 |
12 |
20 |
8m @ 1.27 g/t |
10.16 |
| CTR101 |
587986.2 |
889876.8 |
183.653 |
27 |
31 |
4m @ 2.54 g/t |
10.16 |
| CTR225 |
587725.9 |
889574.3 |
175 |
43 |
53 |
10m @ 1.02 g/t |
10.20 |
| CTR277 |
588391.8 |
890472.8 |
181.347 |
12 |
30 |
18m @ 0.57 g/t |
10.26 |
| CTR044 |
9200 |
26300 |
151.931 |
2 |
18 |
16m @ 0.65 g/t |
10.40 |
| CTR221 |
587892.6 |
889698.4 |
175 |
47 |
60 |
13m @ 0.8 g/t |
10.40 |
| CTR059 |
9250 |
25900 |
176.79 |
10 |
16 |
6m @ 1.74 g/t |
10.44 |
| CTR067 |
9310 |
26300 |
153.472 |
44 |
46 |
2m @ 5.29 g/t |
10.58 |
| CTR201 |
587889.6 |
889970.4 |
175 |
51 |
54 |
3m @ 3.57 g/t |
10.71 |
| CTR346 |
586776.1 |
888687.8 |
203.347 |
41 |
46 |
5m @ 2.18 g/t |
10.90 |
| CTR137 |
587880.7 |
889420.1 |
175 |
28 |
33 |
5m @ 2.19 g/t |
10.95 |
| CTR053 |
9490 |
25900 |
179.584 |
0 |
14 |
14m @ 0.84 g/t |
11.76 |
| CTR140 |
587796 |
889504.7 |
175 |
19 |
24 |
5m @ 2.38 g/t |
11.90 |
| CTR208 |
588751.9 |
890808.7 |
184.125 |
43 |
46 |
3m @ 4.02 g/t |
12.06 |
| CTR078 |
9480 |
26000 |
167.834 |
14 |
20 |
6m @ 2.19 g/t |
13.14 |
| CTR004 |
9440 |
25900 |
180.619 |
24 |
38 |
14m @ 0.94 g/t |
13.16 |
| CTR077 |
9500 |
26000 |
168.853 |
38 |
48 |
10m @ 1.32 g/t |
13.20 |
| CTR260 |
588670.6 |
890611.3 |
185.254 |
5 |
14 |
9m @ 1.47 g/t |
13.23 |
| CTR283 |
588561.8 |
890303.6 |
192.152 |
42 |
53 |
11m @ 1.21 g/t |
13.31 |
| CTR186 |
588689 |
890802.9 |
188.413 |
71 |
73 |
2m @ 6.66 g/t |
13.32 |
| CTR101 |
587986.2 |
889876.8 |
183.653 |
43 |
48 |
5m @ 2.68 g/t |
13.40 |
| CTR027 |
9320 |
26100 |
158.708 |
22 |
34 |
12m @ 1.12 g/t |
13.44 |
| CTR296 |
588240.7 |
890186 |
171.973 |
14 |
36 |
22m @ 0.64 g/t |
14.08 |
| CTR040 |
9280 |
26300 |
153.009 |
22 |
34 |
12m @ 1.2 g/t |
14.40 |
| CTR008 |
9360 |
25900 |
171.334 |
26 |
40 |
14m @ 1.04 g/t |
14.56 |
| CTR233 |
588711.8 |
890990.8 |
183.21 |
45 |
63 |
18m @ 0.87 g/t |
15.66 |
| CTR243 |
588839 |
890721.9 |
193.064 |
49 |
51 |
2m @ 8.21 g/t |
16.42 |
| CTR069 |
9520 |
25800 |
186.497 |
44 |
50 |
6m @ 2.8 g/t |
16.80 |
| CTR052 |
9470 |
25900 |
181.422 |
10 |
18 |
8m @ 2.13 g/t |
17.04 |
| CTR297 |
588269 |
890158 |
172.342 |
25 |
28 |
3m @ 5.69 g/t |
17.07 |
| CTR074 |
9420 |
25800 |
177.694 |
46 |
50 |
4m @ 4.5 g/t |
18.00 |
| CTR086 |
587875.5 |
889706.9 |
192.415 |
11 |
14 |
3m @ 6.07 g/t |
18.21 |
| CTR027 |
9320 |
26100 |
158.708 |
10 |
14 |
4m @ 5.04 g/t |
20.16 |
| CTR206 |
588089.5 |
889778.4 |
175 |
53 |
75 |
22m @ 0.96 g/t |
21.12 |
| CTR061 |
9250 |
26100 |
166.342 |
26 |
48 |
22m @ 0.97 g/t |
21.34 |
| CTR220 |
587864.2 |
889717.6 |
175 |
7 |
23 |
16m @ 1.46 g/t |
23.36 |
| CTR055 |
9530 |
25900 |
174.376 |
26 |
30 |
4m @ 6.33 g/t |
25.32 |
| CTR015 |
9220 |
25900 |
180.201 |
8 |
40 |
32m @ 0.8 g/t |
25.60 |
| CTR203 |
588004.2 |
889858.4 |
175 |
57 |
66 |
9m @ 3.53 g/t |
31.77 |
| CTR127 |
588683 |
890737.8 |
188.751 |
47 |
58 |
11m @ 2.9 g/t |
31.90 |
| CTR002 |
9480 |
25900 |
180.868 |
0 |
38 |
38m @ 1.08 g/t |
41.04 |
| CTR155 |
587119.7 |
888770.5 |
175 |
35 |
37 |
2m @ 21.48 g/t |
42.96 |
| CTR275 |
588334 |
890528.6 |
182.042 |
0 |
12 |
12m @ 3.98 g/t |
47.76 |
| CTR014 |
9240 |
25900 |
178.264 |
20 |
26 |
6m @ 11.29 g/t |
67.74 |
| CTR127 |
588683 |
890737.8 |
188.751 |
22 |
39 |
17m @ 4.47 g/t |
75.99 |
| CTR186 |
588689 |
890802.9 |
188.413 |
36 |
42 |
6m @ 18.38 g/t |
110.28 |
| CTR191 |
588645.8 |
890703.6 |
187.59 |
27 |
54 |
27m @ 6.37 g/t |
171.99 |
Next Steps
Strategic future activities will involve the following:
- Structural mapping of the Tombe Prospect, especially in the vicinity of the "Central" and "Tombe North" Zones. This information will provide 3D visualisation of existing drill intercepts and their extrapolation to surface and down plunge.
- Trenching to investigate 'daylighting' mineralised shoots.
- Oriented RC and core drilling to intersect mineralised shoots down plunge.
- Resource estimation.
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