Modern Mining November 2016

MINING News

Orca Gold announces Block 14 drilling results The camp serving the Block 14 gold project in northern Sudan (photo: Orca Gold).

bank of the River Nile to the town of Abu Hamad and then via a well-used desert road to the project area. The PQ and HQ sized diamond drill holes were drilled within the pit designs used for the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) completed in July this year in the Main and East Zones at GSS, where the true width of mineralisation is in excess of 65 m. Commenting on the results, Richard Clark, CEO and Director, said, “Whilst the new holes are infill to provide both met- allurgical information and infill assay data for the PFS, they strongly re-iterate and confirm the scale and width of the mineralisation at Galat Sufar South. The distribution of grade within these areas this product will perform similarly to lithium with increased demand and price performance,” comments Duane Parnham, Giyani’s Executive Chairman. “The location of this project has virtu- ally untapped mineral potential within the Kalahari Manganese Field that fits well with our corporate strategy of acquiring raw material to feed the growing battery indus- try. The regional scale project with proven historical production and drill cores con- taining high-grade manganese, all within a favourable mining jurisdiction, make this an exceptional target to add and sustain share- holder value.” 

is remarkably consistent, lending itself to open-pit mining with a waste: ore ratio of 2:1, defined by the PEA. “A geotechnical core drilling pro- gramme has also now been completed (results pending) and two reverse circu- lation rigs are now working on an infill programme to convert inferred resources within the PEA pits to indicated to enable us to define a maiden ore reserve as part of the PFS. We remain very excited by the developing story at GSS and Block 14.” Clark is a former President and CEO of Red Back Mining, which was acquired by Kinross Gold in late 2010. Other key executives in Orca have a background with Red Back. Hugh Stuart, Orca’s President, was VP Exploration at Red Back from 2003 and responsible for the discovery of the Akwaaba Deeps and Paboase underground deposits at Chirano in Ghana and the Greenschist zone at Tasiast in Mauritania, increasing the company’s resources by plus 18 Moz. Orca’s COO is Kevin Ross, who fulfilled the same function at Red Back, where he directed the development of the Akwaaba Deeps underground mine, the Chirano plant expansion, and the Tasiast plant expansion. Orca is contemplating a 1,8 Mt/a CIL operation using contract mining at Block 14 with a gold production of 73 000 oz/a over a mine life of 16 years. According to the PEA, initial capex would be approxi- mately US$123 million. 

Orca Gold Inc, listed on the TSX-V, has announced the results from the first met- allurgical core holes drilled at the Galat Sufar South (GSS) deposit (which has indi- cated resources of 26,3 Mt grading 1,77 g/t and inferred resources of 10,0 Mt grad- ing 1,70 g/t). Intercepts from the drilling include up to 150 m grading 2,20 g/t. The holes form part of the work pro- gramme for the Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS). The PFS is being managed by Lycopodium and is scheduled for completion by the end of Q1 2017. GSS forms part of Orca’s Block 14 gold project in Sudan. It is located close to Sudan’s border with Egypt, 900 km north of the capital Khartoum. Access to the project is by sealed road along the eastern

Giyani plans acquisition of manganese properties Giyani Gold Corp, listed on the TSX-V, has entered into a non-binding Letter of Intent with Arnoldus Brand, director and owner of Matsamo Gold Corp, Menzi Battery Metals and Qakaza Diamond Corp, to acquire an 88-95 % interest in various prospecting licences in Botswana that are highly pro- spective for manganese. The significant 13 283 km 2 land package includes an appli- cation for the Kgwakgwe Hill manganese mine and also surrounds Rio Tinto’s recent iron ore discovery.

“This acquisition positions Giyani with a world class manganese project far ahead of the curve before the global market realises

10  MODERN MINING  November 2016