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Longtoushan Mine � Geology, Mineralisation Style and On-going Exploration
Under the terms of the agreement with the Longtoushan Gold Company, Caledon Resources PLC, through its wholly owned subsidiary Blackwatch Resources, has the right to earn an 81% equity stake in the project by completing a series of cash payments totalling $US 290,000 over three years. Upon a decision to initiate commercial production, Blackwatch Resources will pay the current owners US $2.5 million.
The project and mine site area is situated 15 kilometers from the regional city of Guigang (pop. 400,000), 2 hours drive NE of Nanning on excellent paved roads. The mine site itself is located 2 kilometers from a paved road and hosts excellent access and infrastructure.
The underground gold mine is hosted near the margins of a diatreme breccia complex situated adjacent to a large, multiphase intrusive. The surrounding country rock includes pre-Cambrian basement units underlying Devonian/Carboniferous age calcareous sediments. Paleozoic age granitic porphyries intrudes these rock sequences and appear to be spatially and temporally related to the gold mineralisation throughout the region.
The gold zones at Longtoushan are hosted within a suite of strongly brecciated porphyritic intrusive units. Field mapping and sampling is currently underway in the area, where extensive areas of alteration (silica, pyrite and tourmaline) were recently identified by the company�s field crews.
In addition, further strongly altered and brecciated intrusives and sediments have been identified in surface gold showings within a 10+ kilometer radius of main mine workings, indicative of a much larger mineralised system than was originally contemplated. Grab samples recently collected by Caledon�s field crews in known surface gold workings situated over 10 kilometers away from the mine workings have assayed up to 6.12 g/t gold. It is firmly believed that this recently sampled mineralisation is spatially related to the same zones hosting the Longtoushan ore body.
Longtoushan commenced commercial production in 1995, on a reserve base of 1.16 million tonnes averaging 5.02 g/t Au. The company is currently conducting small scale mining at a rate of 60,000 tpa with a recovered gold grade averaging 4.8 g/t. Caledon�s compilation of historical continuous channel sampling programs conducted at various levels underground by the Longtoushan Gold Company, includes the following:
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Mine Level |
Stope # |
Continuous Channel Sample: Grade and Width |
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380 m |
CD-10 |
5.17 g/t over 30 m |
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540 m |
CD-17-1 |
6.47 g/t over 31 m, incl. 10.51 g/t over 14 m |
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580 m |
CD-19 |
4.34 g/t over 23 m, incl. 7.95 g/t over 8 m |
Landsat 7 Satellite Image of the Longtoushan Gold Project Area showing the trace of the diatreme and the extent of gold showings peripheral to the mine - Click here to expand
Click here - to expand the Map: Geology of the Longtoushan Gold Project Area
Mineralisation Extent at Longtoushan: Surface gold working and vat leaches, two kilometers from the mine workings
Signing Ceremony: Caledon Resources PLC and the Longtoushan Gold Company - July 4, 2003
Click here - to jump to our video gallery highlighting on-site videos taken at Longtoushan
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