Jan 23 2013
Medgold Resources Corp., the European focused gold exploration company, is pleased to announce the successful issuance of the Grasceta gold exploration licence, located in southern Tuscany, Italy.
The acquisition of the 8 square kilometre Grasceta licence, which adjoins the Company's Frassine licence, is part of the Company's strategy to build a portfolio of European gold projects with potential to host multi-million ounce deposits.
Medgold has commenced exploration in the area with field crews undertaking detailed mapping, grid-rock sampling and channel-chip sampling. Results from this phase of exploration are expected in late February.
Medgold President, Dan James , said: "This acquisition - our first since listing on the TSX-V - underlines our aggressive growth strategy. The region is extremely exciting with known jasperoid (silicified limestone) occurrences observed at both Frassine and Grasceta with historically-reported high gold grades. We are looking forward to exploring these two licences as well as our Pietratonda licence and drill testing the most prospective gold targets."
A drilling campaign conducted at Frassine-Grasceta in 1991 by a joint-venture between Anglo American Corporation (now Anglo America plc) and Agip Miniere (a subsidiary of the Agip oil company) completed 7 diamond drill holes for 600 metres which returned intersections of up to 3.15 g/t Au over 4 metres and 0.94 ppm Au over 19 metres in two holes, with a highest sample value of 6.4 g/t Au. These are historical data which have not been verified by Medgold and are quoted for information purposes.
Medgold collected 12 reconnaissance rock samples at Frassine-Grasceta in November 2011, which yielded a high of 1.02 g/t Au from a grab sample, and 0.41 g/t Au over 12 metres from a composite channel-chip sample.
The Frassine-Grasceta licences are located 43 km from the Pietratonda licence, which was the qualifying NI 43-101 project for Medgold's recent RTO. Medgold's licences cover potentially high-grade, limestone-hosted Carlin-type epithermal gold targets, one of the most prospective gold deposits types. The acquisition of the Grasceta licence is part of Medgold's strategy to build a significant land position in southern Tuscany where initial field work has demonstrated the presence of sediment hosted gold mineralization (see Medgold's NI 43-101 report dated November 5, 2012 on www.sedar.com)
Mineralization at Frassine-Grasceta is controlled by high-angle feeder structures, and hosted by jasperoids which typically occur on low-angle thrust faults and also in high-angle normal faults. High-grade gold mineralization is typically associated with the latter and can also be associated with localized copper-lead-zinc mineralization.
Dr. Richard Sillitoe , an internationally renowned geological consultant, visited the region for Medgold in November 2011 and noted the following: "Frassine is clearly the highest-priority licence area selected to date because of the previously defined, high-grade gold values, widespread distribution of jasperoid and localised presence of hypogene alunite. The deposit types being targeted in Tuscany are high- and low-grade sediment-hosted gold mineralization. High-grade analogues are Meikle and Deep Star in the Carlin trend of Nevada, where fault control with or without pre-existing karst are partial ore controls. An appropriate analogue for a low-grade (1-2 g/t) deposit is Gualcamayo, Argentina, which is hosted by partially karsted massive limestone."
Dan James concluded: "We are also evaluating a number of other gold projects in the Iberian peninsula. Our focus is on areas with known gold deposits, where we believe our programs will benefit from the urgent need of the regional governments for new investment and job creation. We will update our shareholders on progress in the coming weeks."