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Location and Background
The Tinga Prospecting License is located near the village of Tinga, which is south of the town of Bole in northern Ghana. The concession is enjoying the recent and ongoing infrastructural upgrades (power; telephones; roads) that are occurring along the regional Bamboi-Bole link road, which bypasses the concession.
The Tinga Property was acquired from Semafo Inc. in June 2005. The 43.8-sq.km concession is host to the Far East gold deposit, which at the time Semafo had estimated contained 1,334,300 tonnes of indicated resources at 3.31 g/t for 142,000 ounces gold (pre-dated NI 43-101).
Geology and Mineralization
Geologically the concession is situated over Dixcove granites,which have intruded into the sedimentary Maluwe Basin which is north-adjacent to the Bui Belt.
The tenement is located over a circular dioritic (granite) intrusion known as the Tinga Intrusive, which has intruded through the metasediments of the Maluwe Basin. The intrusion is concentrically and compositionally layered. Large-scale, NE-SW shear zones have exploited the compositional layering and created elongated zones of dilation which host gold mineralization.
Exploration Strategy
Volta believes that the Tinga Property has the potential to support a 500,000-1 million ounce gold camp. The aim has been to expand the Far East resource down dip and along strike and to explore the other geochemical anomalies on the Tinga Property for satellite deposits.
Work achieved to date:
- Tinga has been adequately soil sampled to define the regional gold anomalies.
- A geology and regolith map has been made for the property.
- Induced Polarisation (I.P.) and pole-dipole surveys have been conducted over all of the current prospects.
- The Far East gold deposit resource base has been increased by 62.2% and the deposit remains open along strike and to depth.
- Satellite gold anomalies to Far East have been investigated with 18 scout drill holes and further drilling is warranted.
Far East Resource Area
Location
The Far East Prospect is the most easterly of five (5) geochemical prospects at Tinga. It is
located 2 km from the nearest Prospect "B", and 10 km west of the Volta's 7 km-long Kuri gold-in-soil anomaly on the Kuri Property.
Geology and Mineralization
The Far East deposit is located where a regional structural shear crosscuts the compositional layering within a concentrically-zoned belt granitoid. The highly silicified lodes are strongly structurally controlled and are characterised by moderate to intense chlorite and iron alteration and coarse euhedral pyrite. The lodes are located within a hornblende gneiss unit near the contact with a quartz feldspar porphyry unit.
The style of mineralization encountered at the Far East deposit is associated with shear zone-hosted, mesothermal, auriferous pyrite quartz vein stockworks and arrays, typical of many gold deposits encountered in the Birimian rocks of West Africa. In Ghana, the Chirano, Ayanfuri and Ahafo gold mines have geological similarities with the Far East deposit.
Exploration Strategy
In addition to Semafo's 100 RC resource holes at Far East, Birim (now Volta) has drilled 78 resource and scout RC/DD holes at (and near) Far East as well as 18 scout RC drill holes into various IP axes at other prospects ("B" and "C") on the Tinga Property.
Subsequent to this drilling, RSG Global of Perth, Australia was commissioned to complete an NI 43-101 compliant resource estimation for the Far East gold deposit in October 2007 which provided a global resource of 2,057,000 tonnes at 3.33-3.61 g/t for 232,000 ounces gold.
Summary Resource Statement for Tinga Far East Gold Deposit
Subdivided by Resource Category (above 0.5g/t Au lower cutoff) as at 20th August 2007
| Deposit |
Indicated Resource |
Inferred Resource |
| Tonnage |
Grade
(g/t gold) |
Gold
Ounces |
Tonnage
(millions) |
Grade
(g/t gold) |
Gold
Ounces |
| Tinga Far East |
1,340,000 |
3.61 |
155,000 |
717 |
3.33 |
77,000 |
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The resource model is based on drilling undertaken over a strike extent of 2,000 meters down to an average depth of 100 meters and to a maximum depth of 190 meters below surface. The mineralized structure is continuous and coherent over 900 meters in the core of the Main Zone area. Another zone which was intersected in the footwall of the Main Zone where RTC051 returned 7 meters at 2.07 g/t from 11 meters hole depth (including 4 meters at 3.47 g/t). This new zone has not been included in the current resource estimation.
In November 2007 a soil survey of the entire anomalous portion of the Tinga license was completed and samples were analysed using bottle roll leaching. This resampling effort was justified as it refined the definiton of the historical soil anomalies of the "B" and "C" Prospects which are 1.6 and 2.5 kilometers west of the Far East deposit respectively, amongst others. This effort provided 10 geochemical scout drill targets peripheral to Far East prospect.
In February 2008, a 5,477 meter, 83-hole RC drill program was completed at Tinga which addressed the following targets:
- The 10 geochemical scout drill targets peripheral to Far East
- The strike extensions at each end of the Far East deposit.
- Resource definition drilling on 50 meter centres of the untested footwall zone.
Assay results are currently being received, checked for quality control and databased. Subsequent to the completion of that process the results will be released, however they are providing further encouragement for additional drilling.
Next Steps
Volta's immediate follow-up strategy includes the following activities:
As drill results are being received from the recent RC drill program, so further work is being considered in the following areas:
- the Far East resource geometry is being adjusted and interpreted and further drill positions are being considered.
- Follow-up RC & Diamond target definition drilling is being planned for the scout drill targets.
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