Hot Features
Premium
Level up your trading with our powerful tools and real-time insights all in one place.
Options a Key Stake in a Newly Defined Gold District
Mariana Resources, an AIM listed exploration and development company with projects in Peru, Argentina and Chile, has announced it has entered into an option agreement to earn up to a 50.01% interest in Nassau Gold Limited, a joint venture company between Mariana and Sumin Resources Limited for the development of the Nassau Gold Project.
The Nassau Project is located in the highly prospective Guyana Shield of Suriname in South America , 20km south of the recently announced Newmont Mining Corporation’s Merian gold development project with contains reserves of 4.2 million ounces gold. Sumin is a private company holding 100% of Nassau Gold Limited , which has the option to acquire 80% of the Nassau Project.
Overview:
– Option entered to earn up to 50.01% interest in Nassau Gold Limited in the highly prospective Guyana Shield of Suriname in South America, a new frontier for gold exploration, discoveries and production (Fig 4)
– The Nassau Project is located in close proximity to significant producing and near-term producing assets:
– A highly prospective Paleoproterozoic-age greenstone belt with the potential for the discovery of both oxide / laterite-hosted gold deposits and primary orogenic, high grade vein gold deposits
– 20km from near-term producer Merian Gold Mine operated by Newmont Mining Corporation- targeting 300,000-400,000oz Au per annum from 2016
– IAMGOLD’s Rosebel gold mine (Total proven and probable reserves of 5.44Moz Au) is located in north eastern Suriname and has been in commercial production since 2004 – produced 336,000 ounces of gold in 2013 at operating cash costs of $US718 per ounce
– Exploration expected to commence in October 2014 at the 28,174 Ha Nassau concessions targeting three major artisanal gold workings – Witlage Creek, Bamboo Creek, and Bowl. The primary source of this alluvial gold has yet to be discovered
– Exploration programme will include geological mapping, soil/laterite sampling, auger drilling, and potentially airborne geophysics
– Initial focus will be on the discovery of both laterite hosted gold on the Nassau Plateau, an elevated geographical feature which contains the bulk of the sector’s known bauxite resources, in addition to high grade vein-type gold deposits located upstream from the known alluvial workings
– Previous mineral exploration has been limited to bauxite (alumina) exploration by Alcoa and minor gold exploration by both Alcoa and Newmont in the Witlage sector
– The earn in period is over 30 months with ownership being earned on a staged basis (key terms detailed below)
– Mariana is the operator of the project and has contracted Dennis LaPoint as Project Manager via Nassau Gold Limited for the Nassau Project. Dennis was responsible for the initial drillout stages at both the Merian and Rosebel projects
Chief Executive Officer, Glen Parsons today commented “The Nassau Gold Project represents another unique and exciting opportunity for Mariana offering a project with “major” gold production potential evidenced by the nearby Newmont Merian and IAMGOLD Rosebel gold projects. Mariana’s portfolio is certainly strongly complemented with this project. The potential prospectivity for a sizeable resource with both high grade gold as well as bulk tonnage oxide zones is our objective. With exploration targeted to commence in the coming weeks we will be able to deliver milestones in the short term as we move Nassau up our company portfolio development curve. Thanks to our recent funding agreement with Bergen Asset Management we are well funded for this near-term exploration with the aim of achieving sound drill targets for the second stage of the option.”
“We are delighted to have Dennis LaPoint project managing the Nassau Project on the ground in Suriname following his significant experience in-country with Newmont and IAMGOLD. The Nassau Project offers a new underexplored highly prospective frontier for Mariana , hosting evidence of sustained artisanal gold production over a considerable period of time within the licence area. This acquisition further increases Mariana’s exciting newsflow as we grow our portfolio and continue to advance all our projects up the development curve and I look forward to sharing our exciting progress going forward .”
