TIDMALS
RNS Number : 7216V
Altus Strategies PLC
07 November 2017
Altus Strategies Plc / Index: AIM / EPIC: ALS / Sector:
Mining
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO US NEWSWIRE SERVICES NOR FOR
DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
07 November 2017
Altus Strategies Plc
("Altus" or the "Company")
New Gold Exploration Licence Granted in Western Liberia
Altus Strategies Plc (AIM: ALS), the Africa focused exploration
project generator, announces that it has been granted the Zolowo
exploration licence ("Zolowo" or the "Licence") in the Lofa County
of north western Liberia targeting Archaean greenstone-hosted gold
deposits.
Highlights:
-- 732km(2) gold exploration licence in western Liberia targeting Archaean greenstone belts
-- Licence contains numerous and extensive artisanal alluvial workings
-- On the same geological trend as the New Liberty gold mine operated by Avesoro Resources
-- First phase of reconnaissance exploration planned to commence this year
Steven Poulton, Chief Executive of Altus, commented:
"We are delighted to have been awarded the Zolowo exploration
licence in western Liberia. The Licence targets a significant 33km
long Archaean greenstone gold belt, some of the drainages from
which host numerous and extensive alluvial workings. The Archaean
geology of Western Liberia is prospective for the discovery of
significant gold deposits, with the New Liberty mine located 190km
SW of Zolowo being testimony to this. Our field teams are now
making preparations to commence the first phase reconnaissance
programme of mapping and sampling. We look forward to updating
shareholders in due course".
Zolowo Exploration Licence
The Zolowo licence has been granted for the exploration of gold,
diamond, base metals and silver and covers an area of approximately
732km(2) in the Lofa County of north western Liberia. The Licence
is initially awarded for a three year term, after which it can be
renewed for a further two years twice with a 50% reduction in the
licence size required with each renewal.
The Zolowo area was selected based on a comprehensive in-house
analysis of available datasets. These included geological maps,
historic mineral occurrences, remote sensing data and satellite
imagery. The Licence is situated on the south-western portion of
the West African Craton and contains a significant 33km long
northeast-southwest ("NE-SW") trending Archaean-aged greenstone
belt, which forms a prominent ridge that traverses the Licence. The
greenstone belt and potential regional shearing are considered to
be highly prospective for the formation of multi-million ounce
mesothermal gold deposits. Zolowo hosts numerous and extensive
artisanal alluvial workings, as identified through the analysis of
high resolution satellite data that are up to 500m wide and 100m
long in places. Many of the artisanal workings coincide with areas
where gold was historically documented by mapping undertaken by the
United States Geological Survey.
An initial phase of reconnaissance exploration will now be
undertaken by the Company's technical team. This programme will
include mapping and sampling of high priority hard rock targets and
artisanal workings. It is expected that a licence-wide stream
sediment survey will subsequently be conducted in order to define
the primary sources of the alluvial gold fields.
The following figures have been prepared and relate to the
disclosures in this announcement and are visible in the version of
this announcement on the Company's website
(www.altus-strategies.com) or in PDF format by following the link
below:
http://altus-strategies.com/site/assets/files/4265/new_gold_exploration_licence_granted_in_western_liberia.pdf.
-- Location of the Zolowo licence in Liberia is shown in Figure 1.
-- The geology and location of artisanal workings of the Zolowo licence is shown in Figure 2.
-- A selection of satellite images of artisanal gold workings is shown in Figure 3.
Zolowo Project: Location
The Company's 99% owned subsidiary, Auramin Limited, holds a
100% interest in the Zolowo project comprising a single exploration
licence in the Lofa County of northern Liberia, approximately 25km
northeast of the Company's Bella Yella gold project and 190km
northeast of the capital, Monrovia. The project area encompasses
the town of Zorzor, the second largest settlement in the county,
and is accessible through a pervasive network of laterite roads and
tracks. A primary road also connects Zorzor to the towns of Gbarnga
(60km south) and Voinjama (70km north), the latter of which hosts a
domestic airport.
Zolowo Project: Geological setting
The Archaean geology of western Liberia is considered analogous
to that which hosts the Kerr-Addison mine in Ontario, the Golden
Mile in Kalgoorlie and the Homestake mine in the United States. The
Zolowo licence is situated within the prospective Archaean-aged Man
Shield, the south-westernmost component of the West African Craton,
which extends across significant areas of Liberia, Guinea, Sierra
Leone and Côte d'Ivoire. Historical maps produced by the United
States Geological Survey show that the underlying geology of the
licence is composed predominantly of Archaean basement. This
includes lithologically competent units, such as felsic gneisses
and granitic-granodioritic intrusive rocks, which surround discrete
linear belts of comparatively weak supracrustal greenstones. The
latter are orientated similarly to the regional NE-SW foliation and
comprise ultramafic and metasedimentary rocks that have been
subject to amphibolite grade metamorphism. The difference in
lithological competencies between these juxtaposed units is
considered favourable for the formation of mesothermal gold
deposits as prolonged phases of deformation leads to the formation
of brittle ductile structures though which mineralised fluids can
travel and precipitate gold.
The Licence is located 25km NE and along strike of the Company's
wholly owned Bella Yella gold project, where rock-chip samples
included grades of 233 g/t Au and 229 g/t Au. The project is also
located 190km along the same NE-SW regional trend which hosts New
Liberty gold mine, operated by AIM and TSX listed Avesoro Resources
Inc. New Liberty has a Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource of
9.6Mt containing 985,000 ounces of gold grading 3.2g/t and an
Inferred Mineral Resource of 6.4Mt containing 620,000 ounces of
gold grading 3.0g/t.
Figure 1: Location of the Zolowo licence in Liberia
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/7216V_-2017-11-6.pdf
Figure 2: The geology and location of artisanal workings of the
Zolowo licence
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/7216V_1-2017-11-6.pdf
Figure 3: A selection of satellite images of artisanal
workings
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/7216V_2-2017-11-6.pdf
Qualified Person
The technical disclosure in this regulatory announcement has
been read and approved by Steven Poulton, Chief Executive of Altus.
A graduate of the University of Southampton in Geology (Hons), he
also holds a Master's degree from the Camborne School of Mines
(Exeter University) in Mining Geology. He is a Fellow of the
Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and a Fellow of the
Geological Society of London. He has over 18 years of experience in
mineral exploration and is a Qualified Person under the AIM rules
and National Instrument 43-101 under the rules of the TSX.
Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure
Certain information contained in this announcement would have
been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of
Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this
announcement.
For further information you are invited to visit the Company's
website www.altus-strategies.com or contact:
Altus Strategies Plc Tel: +44 (0)
Steven Poulton, Chief 1235 511 767
Executive E: info@altus-strategies.com
Matthew Grainger, Executive
Director
Greg Owen, VP Corporate
Development
SP Angel (Nominated Adviser) Tel: +44 (0)
Ewan Leggat / Richard 20 3470 0470
Morrison / Soltan Tagiev
SP Angel (Joint Broker) Tel: +44 (0)
Elizabeth Johnson / Richard 20 3470 0471
Parlons
Beaufort Securities (Joint Tel: +44 (0)
Broker) 20 7382 8300
Jon Bellis
Blytheweigh (Financial Tel: +44 (0)
PR) 20 7138 3204
Tim Blythe / Camilla Horsfall
/ Nick Elwes
Notes to editors:
About Altus Strategies Plc
Altus is a diversified and Africa focused project generator in
the natural resource sector. Through our subsidiaries we discover
new projects and attract third party capital to fund their growth,
development and ultimately exit optionality. This strategy enables
Altus to remain focused on the acquisition of new opportunities to
be fed into the project generation cycle and aims to minimise
shareholder dilution. Our business model is designed to create a
growing portfolio of well managed and high growth potential
projects which is diversified by commodity and by country. We aim
to position our shareholders at the vanguard of value creation, but
with significantly reduced risks traditionally associated with
investments in the mineral exploration sector.
The following is a summary of the Company's key projects:
Cameroon - Gold
The Company holds the 189km(2) Laboum gold exploration licence
in northern Cameroon through its 99% owned subsidiary Auramin Ltd.
At Laboum an approximately 18km and 5km wide long gold-bearing
shear zone has been discovered. In addition close to 1km of quartz
veins have been discovered with exposed widths of between 1m and
40m. High resolution ground geophysics and a concurrent gold in
soil survey are defining priority targets for a systematic
trenching programme. The Laboum licence hosts a number of artisanal
gold mining sites and grab samples have returned grades up to 24.50
g/t Au from quartz veins and 6.86 g/t Au from the sheared
metasedimentary rocks respectively.
Morocco - Copper
The Company holds the 60km(2) Agdz copper-silver exploration
licence in central Morocco through its 100% owned subsidiary
Aterian Resources Ltd. Five prospects have been defined to date,
the best of which retuned grades up to 8% Cu, 448 g/t Ag and 3.74
g/t Au. The project is located close to a number of operating
mines, notably the recently commissioned Bouskour Cu-Ag mine
located 14km NE of Agdz.
Ethiopia - Copper
The Company holds the 322 km(2) Tigray-Afar and Negash
copper-silver exploration licences ("Tigray-Afar") in northern
Ethiopia through its 100% owned subsidiary Altau Resources Ltd.
Tigray-Afar is subject to a memorandum of agreement with Japan Oil
Gas and Metals Corporation and comprises manto style copper-silver
mineralisation, forming lenses, pipes or veins. The Company also
holds the 412km(2) Daro exploration licence which targets VMS style
deposits in northern Ethiopia.
Cameroon - Bauxite
The Company holds the 601km(2) Birsok & Mandoum bauxite
exploration licences in central Cameroon through its 97.3% owned
subsidiary Aluvance Ltd. The Birsok & Mandoum licences are
subject to a joint venture agreement with ASX-listed Canyon
Resources Ltd. The project is within 10km of an operating rail line
to the port of Douala on the Atlantic Ocean.
Liberia - Gold
The Company holds the 639.6km(2) Bella Yella and 732km(2) Zolowo
gold exploration licences in north western Liberia through its 99%
owned subsidiary Auramin Ltd. Both licences target targeting
Archaean greenstone-hosted gold deposits. At Bella Yella a 7.5km
NE-SW striking gold in soil anomaly has been defined. A number of
artisanal gold workings have been discovered, from which rock chip
assay results have returned grades up to 233 g/t Au. Zolowo hosts a
33km long greenstone belt, a number of drainages from which host
significant artisanal alluvial workings.
Cameroon - Iron Ore
The Company holds the 400km(2) Bikoula & Ndjele iron ore
exploration licences in southern Cameroon through its 97.3% owned
subsidiary Aluvance Ltd. The project hosts an independent (JORC
2012 compliant), inferred mineral resource estimate comprising 46Mt
@ 44% Fe completed by Coffey Mining South Africa (Pty) Ltd in a
report entitled "Mineral Resource Estimation and Classification of
the Bikoula Iron Ore Project in Cameroon". The resource estimate is
from less than 25% of the 17km long target as identified from
airborne geophysics.
Morocco - Other
The Company holds 226km(2) across five exploration licence
throughout Morocco through its 100% owned subsidiary Aterian
Resources Ltd. The licences areas are prospective for zinc, lead,
copper, tin, tungsten and gold. Grades from these licences include
8.15% Pb, 4.48% Zn, 9.18% Cu and 9.61 g/t Au.
Glossary of Terms
The following is a glossary of technical terms:
"Archaean" means an early part of geological time dating from
<4,000 to 2,500 million years ago
"Artisanal" means local people conducting mining, often with
rudimentary equipment
"Au" means gold
"Assay" or "Assay results" means the analysis of minerals, rocks
and mine products to determine and quantify their constituent
parts
"Ag" means silver
"Cu" means copper
"Fe" means iron
"Pb" mean lead
"g/t" means grams per tonne
"Grade(s)" means the quantity of ore or metal in a specified
quantity of rock
"m" means metres
"Ma" means million years ago
"Moz" means millions of ounces
"Outcrop" means a visible exposure of rock that is in-situ and
has no covering of soil or vegetation
"Shear zone" means a zone in which rocks have been deformed by
lateral movement along parallel planes
"Quartz Vein" means a fracture which has been filled by quartz
and other minerals which have crystallised from mineralised
fluids
"Zn" means zinc
**ENDS**
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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