Simba Gold Corp has announced that a comprehensive surface exploration program has commenced at its Miyove Gold Project in Rwanda, Africa.
The surface exploration program commenced on October 12th and will continue until early December. The program, consisting of a ground magnetic survey, soil sampling and detailed geological mapping, will provide detailed information on property scale structures which, based on historic information, are known to host gold mineralization. The current program will provide sufficient information for designing a drill program, to commence in early 2012, which will assess the structural continuity of the various known gold zones.
The program is being conducted by UTM Exploration Services Ltd. of Smithers, British Columbia under the direction of Richard Beck VP of UTM Exploration.
The Miyove Gold Project comprises 2,937 hectares and is located in the northern portion of Rwanda, approximately 65 kilometres from the capital city of Kigali. Infrastructure at the property includes excellent road access, water and commercial power access. The project consists of an exploration license issued by the Ministry of Forestry and Mines, in the Republic of Rwanda. The license (license 20/16/03/05) was originally issued August 10, 2006 and has been renewed until March 23, 2014.
The Miyove Gold Project is underlain by rocks of the Central African Mesoproterozoic aged Kibara Belt which extends in a north easterly direction from the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through Rwanda, to the southern portion of Uganda. The Kibaran geology on the property consists of shale, siltstone, sandstone, and rare conglomerate units which have defined simple anticlinal and synclinal fold structures. Mineralization is associated with multiple NW-SE trending structures hosting gold-bearing quartz veins and stockworks. Associated wall rock alteration is comprised of kaolinization and iron oxidation.
The Miyove Project comprises three mineralized zones referred to as Karenda, Baradega and Masogwe, all of which lie along a northwest-southeast mineralized trend which extends for six kilometres. Three types of structurally controlled gold mineralization has been identified and includes, stringer-vein zones, silicified (quartz) and ferruginous shales, and less frequently, quartz veins with varying amounts of iron oxides and hydroxides (in the weathering crust). The host rocks are commonly shale, and to a lesser extent, sandstones. A forth type of gold mineralization has been identified on the property and includes alluvial and deluvial placers.
The gold deposit type being targeted on the Miyove Project is similar to the Twangiza Gold Mine (Banro Corporation) in South Kivu province, DRC which is also hosted in the Kibara belt. In the Twangiza deposit gold mineralization is hosted within mudstones, siltstones, greywackes and porphyries along the crest of a major anticlinal structure and limb-parallel structures. The Twangiza deposit contains Proven and Probable Oxide Mineral Reserves of 1.13 Moz of gold at 2.26 g/t. In addition the deposit contains a Measured and Indicated Oxide Resource of 1.3 Moz gold at 2.3 g/t and a Measured and Indicated Non-Oxide Resource of 4.3 Moz gold at 1.5 g/t (all reserve and resource numbers are 43-101 compliant and have been extracted from recent reports completed for Banro Corp. and are available at www.sedar.com).
To date in 2011, Simba has completed 2,300 metres of drilling on the property, focusing primarily on the Karenda zone. Highlights include:
- Hole MY-11-02: 24.69 m averaging 0.61 g/t gold, including 7.54 m averaging 1.12 g/t gold
- Hole MY-11-05: 5.58 m averaging 1.21 g/t gold, including 2.57 m averaging 2.15 g/t gold