Brazilian Gold Corporation (TSX VENTURE:BGC) has announced they have signed an option agreement through their wholly owned subsidiary, Regent Brazil Holdings Ltd., to acquire 100% of the Santa Julia gold project located approximately 43 kilometres north of the town of Novo Progresso, which is situated along the Santarem – Cuiabá (BR-163) highway in Pará state, northern Brazil.
Highlights of the acquisition are:
- Underexplored area in the Tapajós Mineral Province (unofficial gold production of 30 million ounces),
- Large land package (39,025 Ha) with highly prospective geology,
- Low cost option agreement with staged payments over four years,
- Good infrastructure including road access, nearby hydro-electric transmission lines and services companies,
- Synergies with the Company's adjacent advanced stage São Jorge project, and
- Several grams/tonne gold returned from grab samples of quartz+sulphide stockwork exposed in garimpeiro (artisanal) pit.
The Santa Julia agreement consists of two prospecting licenses and an exploration license for a total area of approximately 9,690 hectares. The Company applied for three additional concessions over open ground that are contiguous with and will form part of the Santa Julia project. One of the concessions is located to the north and two of them are located to the southeast of the Santa Julia acquisition for a total area of 29,335 hectares. The northeast boundary of the project including the three claims mentioned above is approximately 8 kilometres southeast of the São Jorge property, the Company's most advanced stage project.
The São Jorge Gold Project is host to an NI43-101 compliant indicated resource of 8,334,000 tonnes grading 1.3 grams/tonne gold (343,000 ounces) and an inferred resource of 12,576,000 tonnes grading 1.1 grams/ tonne gold (458,000 ounces) using a 0.5 gram/tonne gold cutoff (Coffey Mining, September 14, 2010). The Company currently has two drills on the property and is looking to expand the existing resource that is open down dip by targeting the area between 200 to 300 metres below surface. Results from the first drill hole that targeted this area returned 86 metres grading 1.37 grams/tonne gold (NR01/11, January 18 2011). Geophysical surveys are planned to start in February followed by drilling, which will test the strike potential of the deposit to the southeast and northwest.
The Santa Julia acquisition fits with the Company's strategy of identifying high quality projects that are road accessible (ranch land), close to electrical transmission lines and adjacent to the Company's advanced stage São Jorge project. The Company now has four exploration projects (Pista Manual, Surubim, Rio Novo and Santa Julia) within a 100 kilometre radius of São Jorge, which will allow for lower cost exploration and development, and may provide synergies whereby product from more than one project are trucked to a central processing facility.
The Santa Julia project is underlain by Iriri Group volcano-sedimentary rocks and coeval intrusive rocks that have a northwest trend similar to the overall structure at São Jorge. The Belo garimpo, one of a number of garimpeiro (artisanal) pits found on the property, exposes quartz+sulphide stockwork hosted in felsic volcanic rocks. Five selected grab samples from the pit ranged from 0.24 to 57.5 grams/tonne gold.
The Company plans an initial exploration program consisting of prospecting, mapping, soil sampling and geophysics to identify targets for follow-up diamond drilling.
Santa Julia Agreement Terms
The terms of the agreement are subject to a 1.5% net smelter return ("NSR"). Regent has the option to purchase 1% of the NSR at any time for total consideration of US$1 million leaving the vendor a 0.5% NSR.
Laboratory Procedures
Grab samples were collected by a Company geologist and dispatched to Acme Analytical Laboratories Ltd.'s sample preparation facility in Itaituba, Brazil, where the sample is crushed, split and pulverized to -200 mesh. The pulp is shipped to Santiago, Chile for gold fire assay and another pulp is shipped to Vancouver, Canada for multi-element induced coupled plasma analysis. Acme Analytical Laboratories Ltd. is an internationally certified ISO 9001 laboratory. Brazilian Gold's Quality Assurance – Quality Control Program involving the insertion of appropriate blanks, standards and duplicates was employed with acceptable results.
Garnet Dawson, M.Sc., P.Geo. (British Columbia), Vice President, Exploration for the Company and a Qualified Person, as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical disclosure contained in this News Release.
Source: Brazilian Gold Corporation