Aug 12 2019
Columbus Gold Corp. takes pleasure in offering an update on the exploration program in progress at the Maripa gold project in French Guiana, France. In July 2018, Columbus made an agreement with IAMGOLD Corporation to obtain up to 70% interest in Maripa.
Maripa is situated along a paved national road, about 50 km south of Cayenne, the capital city. The project includes up to five adjacent exploration permits, encompassing an area of 120 km2. It is next to the south of the Boulanger project being developed by the Barrick Gold/Reunion Gold joint venture.
Maripa’s geological setting is similar to IAMGOLD’s world-class Rosebel gold mine (15.2 Moz) located in Suriname, the neighboring country. Previous exploration at Maripa involves 134 core holes, for a total of 9,000 m, which in part defined five wider gold zones, such as Maripa Sud-Est, Changement, Filon Dron, Rhyodacite, and Filon Scieur.
Drilling was restricted to shallow depths inside the oxidized saprolite layer with all five targets returning drill intersections of financial interest with proved potential for mineral resource delineation and expansion. Moreover, various gold-in-soil geochemical anomalies have not been analyzed yet.
The aims of the 2019 exploration program at Maripa are as follows:
- Plan and start a 5,000-m confirmation and extension drill program on select targets
- Analyze the five partially drill-defined gold zones already identified on the project
- Obtain additional regional data for geological interpretation and targeting.
It is predicted that relogging of the historical drill core and validation of the database for future resource estimates will be finished by late August. Together with this work, field validation of drill hole locations and prospecting are underway on the lead drill targets.
Currently, the focus of the field crew is on the Filon Dron target, analyzed by only 10 holes, which returned two of the best gold intersections at Maripa: 2.5 g/t gold over 25.5 m and 4.3 g/t gold over 36 m. Relogging of the Filon Dron drill core has been finished. Deep surface oxidation on the target with 80–100 m of saprolite cover can increase the potential for oxide ore.
In September 2018, a zonal 256-km2 high-resolution LiDAR topographic survey with orthophoto coverage was finished. Tenders were accepted from consultants/contractors to perform a detailed airborne magnetic and radiometric geophysical survey at 100-m line spacing spanning the same area.
The survey will be carried out during the next dry season extending between September and November. The geophysical data will be combined with the LiDAR topographic data for regional and target-specific geological/structural modeling and interpretation.