Midlands Minerals Corporation (TSX VENTURE:MEX) has announced that positive drill intersects indicate potential for further increasing the gold resource on Sian at depth and along strike and depth with the strike length now at 1.2 kilometres.
The Company is pleased to provide updates on:
- Ongoing resource building with on-strike drilling at Esaase
- Drill testing of airborne targets within 5km of Esaase zone and
- Initial drilling at the Kaniago prospect
- QA/QC
"We are going into 2011 with the potential to significantly increase the resource on our Sian - Kwahu Praso gold projects in Ghana. I am pleased to provide an update and a summary of our field activities to date, and for the last Quarter of 2010," said Tom Neelands, P.Geo and Midlands Vice President Exploration.
1) The (Sian) Esaase Zone
On Oct. 15, 2010, Midlands received an in-house interim resource update of the Esaase Zone prepared by SGS Canada Inc. (Geostat). The Memorandum outlined results of a 9,732m drilling program, using assay results received up until September 15, 2010, which showed that the indicated ounces of gold increased 67% from the NI 43-101 compliant estimate of 2008. President and CEO Kim Harris noted that "for each metre drilled in the 2010 campaign, approximately 15 ounces of gold were added to the resource estimate."
The sheared pyritic gold zone previously mined by Sian Goldfields as an oxide ore, is hosted mainly by mafic to intermediate volcanics and prorphyritic felsic dykes. The Esaase shearing is enhanced by the competency contrast between the dykes and the volcanics and both brittle and ductile shears have been exploited by gold-bearing solutions rich in K-spar and pyrite.
The central portion of the zone strikes NNE and dips steeply E. To the N, the zone is offset to the NE and to the south the mineralisation splays off to the SE.
Since the interim resource estimate report was completed by SGS, infill drilling has continued on the northern extensions of the Sian - Esaase zone and has confirmed an additional strike length extension of 240 metres as reported in the November 10, 2010 News Release. This brings the zone strike length to 1.4 kilometres where it is still open in all directions.
More recently, two diamond drill holes (MSRD-104 and MEDD-10-35) confirmed depth and along strike continuations of the gold resource. MSRD-104 was designed to extend an intersection in a RC hole which previously terminated in mineralisation. Results from this hole of 1.59 g/t Au over 5.0m extends the deposit to a depth of 100m and also intersected gold zones projected from previous holes. MEDD-10-35, drilled 50m to the south of MEDD-10-34A links up with both MEDD-10-21 and MEDD-10-34A, and intersected 1.11g/t over 4.0m. In the zone, the average depth of mineralisation is only 250m with the deepest intersection being 300m.
"Continued positive drill intercepts north of the open pit have added to the overall resource valuation, but a better understanding of the structural controls on Sian-Praso is vital prior to further drilling in 2011. We will be re-logging the core in order to understand the economic relationship between the porphyry dykes and the structural controls. We are committed to detailed exploration programs to fully understand the structural complexity of the Esaase zone so that we can apply it to the area." said Tom Neelands, P.Geo.
To the SSW of the Esaase zone, by another 1.5km, untested gold soil anomalies indicate that the zone may continue to a point where ENE VTEM lineaments crosscut the Esaase NNE trend. The ENE lineaments are an extension of the Obuasi trend which hosts Newmont's Akyem deposit that is located 30km to the WSW. The Obuasi Gold Mine has a current reserve in excess of 30 million ounces while Newmont's Akyem Mine is host to over 8 million ounces of gold.
This area of cross cutting structures has been identified as the Mpeyo Area and this area contains gold soil anomalies whose shapes are controlled by both the Obuasi and Esaase trends. These anomalies are more anomalous than the gold soil anomalies surrounding the Esaase zone, making this area highly prospetive. More infill soil sampling is planned for this area prior to additional drilling in early 2011.
2) Geotech Airborne Targets
Initial diamond and RC drilling on Geotech Airborne Spectral-VTEM survey has encountered narrow mineralized zones in weakly altered and sheared volcanic. Drill holes constituted a first pass test on target areas which were selected because of the presence of old artisanal workings, Au-soil anomalies, K spectral airborne anomalies and NNE magnetic and resistivity lineaments. Due to the initial unfavourable results, more infill soil sampling is planned to define the targets more precisely.
3) Kaniago Gold Project
The Kaniago concession is 46 square kilometers in size and is located in the Asankrangwa Gold Belt. It is on strike with two past open pit gold producers, the Abore deposit to the north and the Obotan to the south. It is underlain by metasediments that have been deformed into three different (NNE, NE and ENE) trends that are named after deposits and concessions located within the trend; these are: Kaniago-Abore-Keegan Trend (300,000 ounces Abore deposit and Keegan's Essase 3.5 million ounce resource), the Kaniago-Adubiaso Trend (Adubiaso deposit) and the Kaniago-Obotan Trend (800,000 ounces Obotan deposit).
Geotech Airborne Services has also completed an airborne spectral, magnetic and electromagnetic survey on the Kaniago gold project and Midlands has completed regional and detailed soil sampling surveys. The Company has begun to make drill preparations on Kaniago and public relations meetings have been initiated with the local Community. Once, final target selection is completed, RC (Reverse Circulation) drill pads will be cleared and if necessary, crop compensation will be paid to farmers for these targets as required. RC drilling is planned to start in the First Quarter of 2011.
4) QA/QC
Core samples are generally taken at 1 meter intervals with exceptions varying from 0.3 to 1.5 meters due to the particular rock type. Sampling is done utilizing a core saw to split the core in two parts, one half to the laboratory and keeping the other half as witness core. All core drill samples are logged and sampled at the property field core shack facilities by SEMS Explorations Services Ltd. of Accra, Ghana. All samples were sent to SGS Laboratory in Tarkwa, Ghana where they were assayed using standard 50 gram fire assay with atomic absorption finish. QA/QC programs are in place using blanks and external standard samples.
Intercepts shown above were calculated using a minimum of a 0.5 g/t cut-off at the beginning and end of the intercept and allowing for no more than 3 consecutive samples (three meters) of less than 0.5 g/t Au. All holes were drilled in a direction at an angle of 90º with the deposit trend. The dip of the hole were planned to intersect at a specific vertical depth.
The technical information in this news release has been reviewed by Tom Neelands, P.Geo. - a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.
Source: Midlands Minerals Corporation