Jan 11 2016
Medgold Resources Corp. is pleased to announce that Medgold has expanded its joint venture with Centerra Gold Inc. to include its Boticas and Chaves gold exploration licences. The two licences will be added to the existing joint-venture agreement currently covering the Valongo Belt licences.
Dan James, President of Medgold, said: "We are very pleased to announce that we've amended our joint venture agreement with Centerra to include the Boticas and Chaves licences in Portugal. We've enjoyed a good working relationship with Centerra on the Lagares project and they are a natural partner for us to work with at Boticas. With the expansion of our agreement with Centerra, our Portuguese projects are now fully-funded and we can plan for a significant budget for the coming 2016 exploration season.
Our work at Boticas to date has been low key and low cost but has successfully generated many new gold targets in addition to the zones identified by historical work; some of the early high-grade sampling results were published in our August 8th release last year. Our main objective now is to drill-test key targets at the project, including Limarinho, as early as we can in 2016, most likely Q2. We will also conduct reconnaissance exploration work on the newly identified targets, and extensive geochemical sampling programs over the principal targets of Limarinho and Casas Novas. Our exploration efforts in the Valongo Belt, which is also under the Centerra agreement, will continue as will our target generation efforts throughout the region."
The Boticas-Chaves Gold Project
The Boticas-Chaves Gold Project is comprised of two exploration licences covering a total area of approximately 600 sq km located in the north of Portugal close to the Spanish border.
The principal prospect at Boticas is the Limarinho zone. In the 1980s and 2000s COGEMA and then Kernow Resources, respectively, completed over 3,000m of diamond drilling testing the prospect. The drilling cut broad zones of low-grade gold mineralization (approx. 1 g/t Au), and also multiple mineralized corridors of much higher grade (2-3 g/t Au) that are continuous over significant strike lengths. Key drill historical intercepts are as follows1:
- KL4 - 20.4 metres of 2.92 g/t Au from 20.7 metres and 9.05 metres of 3.37 g/t Au from 145 metres;
- PF3 - 19.7 metres of 2.8 g/t Au from 32.3 metres;
- PF11 - 12.1 metres of 2.98 g/t Au from 51.1 metres;
- PF17 - 13.5 metres of 2.17 g/t Au from 65.7 metres;
- PF8 - 10 metres of 1.37 g/t Au from 86.2 metres.
These are historical data provided for information purposes, and Medgold has not completed sufficient work to verify these results.
The mineralized corridors trend east-northeast, while the veins within them trend northeast. The mineralization is structurally-controlled and is believed to be developed within a large deformational zone.
Recent geochemical sampling results indicate the presence of high-grade quartz veins, which typically occur within vein swarms, and can be extensive over significant widths. Detailed structural mapping at Limarinho confirms that the vein swarms and associated alteration occur in a NE-elongate dilational zone which has focused deformation along linear zones. Rock-chip results include assays from 0.01 g/t Au to highs of 75.10 g/t Au, 45.00 g/t Au, 13.90 g/t Au and 11.75 g/t Au.
Similarly, at Casas Novas, which is 3 km southeast of Limarinho, quartz vein swarms are associated with a NE-elongate dilational prism. Grid-soil sampling has confirmed broad zones of gold and arsenic anomalism over an area of 3 km by 2 km, and with rock-chip samples yielding results from 0.01 g/t Au to highs of 71.90 g/t Au, 5.53 g/t Au and 5.20 g/t Au, including new results of 8.54 g/t Au and 7.31 g/t Au.
Located 15 km east of Limarinho within the Chaves licence, is the Carvela zone previously drilled by COGEMA in the 1980s. Narrow intervals of medium- to high-grade gold mineralization were intersected. Mineralization is confined to a significant shear structure, trending north-northeast, associated with a sediment-granite contact. Reconnaissance work has identified that the structure is continuous over 8 km and Medgold has completed a 297-sample grid-soil program (assays pending) over the structure. Rock chip samples yielded results from 0.01 g/t Au to highs of 8.39 g/t Au and 4.26 g/t Au. The exploration target is for very high-grade ore shoots, perhaps confined to dilational prisms, occurring along the structure.