Solomon Gold PLC
22 April 2008
22 April, 2008
Announcement to London Stock Exchange
Solomon Gold plc
SOLOMON GOLD SECURES FAURO TENEMENT
Solomon Gold Plc (Solomon Gold or the Company) is pleased to announce that it
has been issued with a Letter of Intent to grant a Prospecting Licence to the
Company for the Fauro project area by the Solomon Islands Minister for Mines,
Energy and Rural electrification.
The Fauro project area is located on the north western end of Solomon Islands on
the island of Fauro, Shortland group of islands, Western Province, immediately
south of the Papua New Guinea border and approximately 50 kilometres south east
of the giant Panguna copper gold porphyry deposit on Bougainville Island. Fauro
Island lies on the south-east trending volcanic arc that extends from the Tabar
group of islands in Papua New Guinea through the Solomon Islands volcanic chain.
Fauro Island exhibits all the favourable characteristics of an area that is
highly prospective for both oxide and epithermal gold mineralisation.
The Fauro project area covers an extinct volcanic caldera with extensively
altered and brecciated quartz rich intrusive and volcanic rocks. The area has
yielded significant gold anomalies in surface sampling and drilling programs
conducted by other explorers, notably BHP in the late 1980s and Western Pacific
Mining Corporation in the late 1990s. In the light of the results of work
carried out initially by the Solomon Islands' Ministry of Natural Resources in
the early 1970s and by these previous explorers Solomon Gold considers the Fauro
gold project area to have considerable potential for the discovery of both oxide
and epithermal gold deposits. The area covered by the Prospecting Licence
Application measures approximately 70 km2 and is considered by Solomon Gold to
be geologically analogous to the Lihir Island gold mine which has reported
measured and indicated resources of approximately 35 million ounces of gold.
The issue of the Letter of Intent by the Minister enables Solomon Gold to move
rapidly to secure all necessary land access agreements with local landowners on
Fauro Island, facilitating the grant of a Prospecting Licence. Accordingly the
Court action announced by the Company on March 4th, 2008, is now settled.
The Chief Executive of Solomon Gold, Nicholas Mather said:
'The Board of Solomon Gold is heartened by the issue of the Letter of Intent for
Fauro. The project will supplement our ongoing projects on Guadalcanal. The
Letter of Intent vindicates our faith in due process in Solomon Islands, a
region we regard as highly prospective and a great place for mining exploration
companies to be doing business. The Minister has indicated to us that the
Government considers the exploration and mining industry to be likely to play a
very strong role in the next phase of Solomon Islands' economic renaissance.
Broad distribution of gold in soil anomalies, and high grades returned from
stream sediment, outcrop and channel rock chip samples as well as drill
intersections point to one or more strongly gold mineralising events on Fauro
Island. These results, which have outlined multiple targets, give us great
encouragement to negotiate access agreements with the landowners and start our
exploration programme as rapidly as possible. The Company will make good and
rapid use of our operational strengths in Solomon Islands.'
The BHP work programs yielded gold anomalies from soil, rockchip, channel and
drill core samples on numerous targets over a 16 km2 area interpreted to be the
remnant western rim of a volcanic crater which had developed over the upper
levels of a large copper and gold system. Solomon Gold considers the location of
the project, approximately 50 km south east of the giant Panguna porphyry copper
gold deposit on the Island of Bougainville is testimony to the prospectivity of
Fauro. The geology of the area indicates that the mineral system has been
exposed at a high level in the gold dominant zone. This level is considered to
be analogous to the depth of exposure for Lihir Island, also in Papua New
Guinea, which hosts approximately 35m ounces in gold resources.
Work by earlier explorers on Fauro defined a number of prospects. Three of the
more advanced prospects are Kiovakase, Hornbill and Meriguna, key results for
which are summarised below. The Ballyorlo and Bataha prospects also show high
prospectivity based on stream sediment sampling and geology but require further
work.
Kiovakase Prospect:
• 400m x 150m gold in soil anomaly ( > 0.2gpt Au)
• Highest gold in soil value of 2gpt Au
• Channel sampling in bulldozer cuts returned up to 18m at 1.42gpt Au
• Highest grade rock chip sample of 317gpt Au
• Best results from the four drill holes completed at Koviakase were:
Hole ID Depth m Au gpt
KD1 16 - 17 0.61
KD4 66 - 67 0.54
Hornbill Prospect:
• 480m x 400m gold in soil anomaly open to south and west in a silicified
dacite host
• At least seven sub-parallel zones of gold enrichment
• Highest gold in soil value of 22.6gpt
• Channel sampling in bulldozer cuts returned up to 30m at 1.42gpt Au with
one zone of 2.5m grading 24.60gpt Au
• Highest grade rock chip sample of 5.04gpt Au
• Two drill holes started by Western Pacific showed significant
mineralisation reporting a 0.5m intersection grading 8gpt Au and a 5m zone
at 0.32gpt Au. A second hole encountered a pyritic stockwork and terminated
in mineralisation at 116m
Meriguna Prospect:
• 500m x 300m gold in soil anomaly open to south and west
• Highest gold in soil value of 1.45gpt Au
• Channel sampling in bulldozer cuts returned 30m at 1.6gpt Au, 10m at 5gpt
Au and 6m at 4.9gpt Au
• Other trench results include: 5m at 3.95gpt Au, 30m at 1.60gpt Au, 4m at
8.74gpt Au, 6m at 2.3gpt Au, 5m at 2.93gpt Au and 6m at 4.90gpt Au.
• Reported diamond drill intersections from the Loklokimola area of Meriguna
Prospect include:
Hole ID Depth m Thickness m Au gpt
LD1 57 - 58 1 0.66
76 - 77 1 0.58
LD2 3 - 16 13 0.95
81 - 83 2 0.73
LD3 44 - 45 1 0.73
49 - 53 4 0.55
73 - 75 2 3.00
110 - 111 1 1.88
113 - 114 1 0.63
LD4 4 - 6 2 0.94
16 - 18 2 1.43
22 - 24 2 0.91
28 - 32 4 2.52
46 - 48 2 0.59
54 - 57 3 0.79
LD5 4 - 6 2 0.55
18 - 24 6 0.85
30 - 44 14 1.06
The historic results indicate the potential for a significant gold resource in
oxidised zones close to the surface and Solomon Gold intends to test these
prospects systematically by trenching followed by a shallow and an extensive
drilling program. Deeper drilling will also be undertaken to test systems which
would have been sources for the oxide zones.
The Company intends to commence a program of immediate community liaison on
Fauro to reinvigorate previously established relationships with a view to access
agreements being executed swiftly. A camp will be established to provide support
for the geophysical and drilling program to enable rapid follow up of the
results collected by earlier explorers and by the Solomon Islands Ministry of
Natural Resources.
About Solomon Gold
Solomon Gold holds extensive tenements on the main Island of Guadalcanal,
Solomon Islands, for minerals exploration, focusing on copper and gold rich
porphyry systems and high grade epithermal gold mineralisation. The Company
listed on AIM on 10 February 2006 after a £5m capital raising. The Company has
identified approximately 30 km2 of mineralisation indicative of significant
porphyry copper gold and epithermal gold mineralisation systems and is currently
conducting a three rig program drilling key targets. Solomon Gold believes the
area located on the southwest Pacific Rim to host potential for the discovery of
a world class copper gold porphyry system similar to other large ore bodies in
the region such as Ok Tedi, Grasberg and Bougainville which host resources in
excess of 40m oz of gold equivalent as gold and copper. The Company is staffed
by an active team of expatriate and Solomon Island geologists and field hands,
supported by integrated logistics support services.
The program is now augmented by the services of two drilling contractors
operating a total of three rigs for Solomon Gold, and a helicopter service
contract.
In late 2007 the Company announced an intersection of 32m @ 9.45 g/t gold from
108m in drill hole SK11 at Sutakiki in the centre of the broadly mineralised
intrusive zone. Two of the three drill rigs are currently active at Sutakiki and
the third is testing targets in the Koloula Valley to the south.
In December 2007 Solomon Gold raised a further £3.5m to continue working on the
Guadalcanal projects.
It is the current intention of Solomon Gold to define a world class porphyry
copper gold deposit with an overprinted high grade epithermal gold deposit and
ultimately bring it to production. Solomon Gold has access to the required
exploration, development and financing skills to achieve this goal.
The high grade gold mineralisation encountered in the recent drilling at
Sutakiki is characteristic of high grade gold deposits related to mineralised
transform structures in Papua New Guinea and the Indonesian archipelago.
Qualified Person
Information in this report relating to the exploration results is based on data
reviewed by Mr Nicholas Mather (B.Sc. Hons Geol.), the Chief Executive Officer
of the Company. Mr Mather is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining
and Metallurgy who has in excess of 25 years experience in mineral exploration
and is a Qualified Person under the AIM Rules. Mr Mather consents to the
inclusion of the information in the form and context in which it appears.
By order of the Board
DP Cornish
Company Secretary
Contacts:
Mr Duncan Cornish
Secretary
Tel: +61 7 3303 0660 or dcornish@solomongold.com
Mr Stephen Weir
RFC Corporate Finance
Nominated Advisor
Tel +61 2 9250 0048 or Stephen.Weir@rfc.com.au
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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