North Atlantic Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:NAC) has reported that its wholly-owned subsidiary company in the Republic of Mali, North Atlantic Resources SARL, has completed the Convention d'Etablissement for a new 100% owned, convention called Lankafla.
The convention makes provision for exploration expenditures of a total of approximately $1,075,000 to be made by North Atlantic over the first three years of exploration ($141,000 in year one, $344,000 in year two and $590,000 in year three). The Lankafla permit covers an area of 24 square kilometres. Lankafla, combined with the Company's existing Tintinba permit (also 24 square kilometres), represents the area previously covered by the Company's original Kantela permit which was optioned by North Atlantic in January 2003. This new permit forms a key part of the Company's strategy to explore and expand its gold discoveries along strike of the 17 million ounce Sadiola Hill Mine ("Sadiola"). Lankafla is contiguous to the southern boundary of the Sadiola Mine and is situated 10 kilometres southeast of the Sadiola Hill Mine main open pit.
North Atlantic will commence a combined air core ("AC") and reverse circulation ("RC") drill program of up to 10,000 metres in Q1 or Q2, 2011. North Atlantic is fully funded for this program and will mobilize a drill rig to the property as soon as possible.
There are three gold occurrences within the Lankafla permit. The gold occurrences are known as Zones 1, 2, and 3. Zones 2 & 3 are related to northeast trending quartz veins or quartz breccia bodies within silicified argillite and graphitic argillite. Zone 2 is contained in the margin of a silicified granitoid intrusion which has a diameter of approximately two kilometres and is the most advanced gold occurrence at Lankafla. It has been evaluated over a strike length of 250 metres and has a maximum width of 50 metres.
Scott Waldie, President and CEO of North Atlantic said, "Zone 2 is open along strike and down dip. We believe that with increased drill density and proximal exploration to Zone 2 there is significant potential to increase grade and tonnage. In addition to Zone 2, Lankafla has numerous other untested targets that require drill testing. With the start of the first comprehensive exploration program at Lankafla since 2004, we are very excited at the potential for resource expansion and new gold discoveries".
Lankafla is located along the Sadiola mine trend which includes the Yatela and Sadiola Hill ore bodies and the Fe3 and Fe4 satellite pits (AngloGold Ashanti, Iamgold, and SEMOS). At Sadiola the mineralized zones of Fe3 and Fe4 straddle the contact between marbles to the west and carbon-rich pelites to the east, following a north-west trend in the Fe3 pits and a north-east strike in Fe4 pit. Gold mineralisation is mostly associated with lens-shaped breccia zones running broadly parallel to the enclosing metasediments (from; AngloGold Ashanti Annual Report, 2009). The Fe3 and Fe4 pits have produced over one million ounces for Sadiola and are located within one kilometre of the Lankafla permit boundary. The lithology described at Fe3 and Fe4 is interpreted to strike onto the Lankafla property and is mineralogically similar to Lankafla gold discoveries at Zones 2 and 3.
There has been little exploration on the Lankafla property since 2004. In total there is an historical data base of drilling completed by the Company in 2003 to 2005 of: 6,003 metres of AC drilling in 128 holes, 10,355 metres of RC drilling in 113 holes, and 1,729 metres of diamond drilling in 8 holes. In addition to the drill data the Company has completed extensive geochemical and geophysical surveys that will be used to plan new exploration. Please see press releases dated: July 29 and December 17, 2003, and January 7, May 3, June 8, July 6, 2004, and March 4, 2005 for detailed descriptions of drill results from previous programs.
Source: North Atlantic Resources Ltd.