Current Projects

SUKARI GOLD PROJECT

Sukari Hill (believed to derive from the Arabic word for ‘sweet’ due to the quartz’s resemblance to sugar), is an imposing ridge some 23km west of the coastal town of Marsa Alam and located within a 160 sq km license area of the Sukari Gold Project. Surrounded by wide wadis and stunning mountain ranges, Sukari hill has hosted varying ancient mining communities spanning thousands of years.

The Sukari deposit is hosted by a large porphyry body, which is located on a regional shear zone providing favourable drilling conditions. The Project is now at an advanced stage of development, with construction having commenced in quarter two of 2007 and commercial production expected before year end.

Sukari consists of four primary zones that contain varying degrees of ore: Amun, Ra, Gazelle and Pharaoh. The open pit is based on the Main and Hapi ore zones which have been drilled extensively in the Amun and Ra/ Gazelle areas revealing various high-grade zones.

Current Work Programme

The Sukari Gold Project is expected to mine 142 Mt ore @ 1.4 g/t Au, producing 6.4 Moz gold. A further 705 Mt of waste material is also expected to be mined resulting in a waste to ore strip ratio of 5:1.
Ore and waste will be mined using conventional open pit mining methods. The operation is planned to utilize selective mining techniques to separate ore and waste. Provision has been made for drilling and blasting all primary and oxide materials. Ore will be hauled to the run of mine pad next to the Processing Plant and either direct tipped to the crusher or stockpiled for future reclaim at the 4 Mtpa Process Plant throughput rate.

Mining will be progressed at an increased rate compared to processing; approximately 5 Mt of ore is expected to be mined and 4 Mt of ore will be processed annually. Operating at an increased mining rate allows the cut-off grade for feed to the Plant (referred to as “cutover” grade) to be increased in the early years of the schedule. This in turn increases the metal output and project revenue in these early years, thus increasing the discounted operating surplus cashflow. According to current schedules, the low-grade stockpile produced as a result of applying a cutover grade will be processed after mining has ceased, extending the current operating life of the project for a further six years. As a result, the average milled grade during the mining period is forecast to be 1.87 g/t Au, compared to 0.66 g/t Au for the low-grade stockpile.

Regional Exploration

Extensive regional exploration work has begun on the 160 sq km exploitation licence surrounding the Sukari Gold Mine. Mapping and sampling follows the broad NNE – SSW – SSE curvilinear corridor along the major Najd Fault regional structure, from Sukari North, Sukari, Sami South, down to Kurdeman (as pictured). The aim is to produce a comprehensive geological, geochemical, structural and alteration map for the full exploitation licence area, generating targets for more detailed work. Interpretation of satellite imagery will continue to be used to focus efforts in areas of more favourable geology.

Samples collected have returned several highly encouraging gold anomalous results, generally related to quartz veins, shearing and zones of stronger alteration, typically listvenitic silica-ankerite, in felsic volcanic and sedimentary, gabbro-dioritic intrusive and serpentinitic ultramafic rocks. Most of the elevated Au grades are associated with relic pyrite mineralisation. Geochemically, there is a moderate to strong positive correlation between gold and arsenic and silver, with weak association with copper.

Future Prospects

Assay results are encouraging; with several +1ppm Au values returned from the quartz veining, adjacent shear zones and altered rocks. Gold anomalism is generally related to north east trending shear zones and carbonate-silica hydrothermal alteration, with weathered pyrite relic textures evident. Several other shear zones with evidence of historical diggings have been seen in the mapping and sampling areas and have been followed up by more detailed work.

Kurdeman Prospect

Extensive mapping and rock chip sampling have been taken at the Kurdeman Prospect, which is the site of historical ancient and British colonial mining and diggings. Several holes returned high Au grades, confirming the geochemistry and structural interpretation. The high grade gold mineralisation intersected is associated with smoky grey quartz veins and sulphides, hosted in felsic to intermediate volcanic and intrusive rocks.

Sukari North Prospect

Eleven holes for 1,500m were completed at the Sukari North Prospect, aimed at testing the main felsic intrusive unit in the area of the workings and gold anomalous rock chip samples and the dominant moderate east to south east mineralised structural trends. Several zones of weak to moderate gold anomalism were detected, associated mainly with zones of strong ankeritic alteration and quartz veining in the felsic intrusive unit, and at contacts to the surrounding sediments and mafic volcanic rocks. More regional mapping and sampling through the area has been completed to identify extensions to the mineralisation.

Download Project Information (updated April 2010)