Regulatory Story Go to market news section Company Red Rock Resources plc TIDM RRR Headline Update on Mid Migori Released 16:46 13-Nov-2009 Number 5231C16
RNS Number : 5231C Red Rock Resources plc 13 November 2009
RED ROCK RESOURCES PLC
Update on Mid Migori gold project
Dated: 13 November 2009
Red Rock Resources plc ("Red Rock" or the "Company") the mineral exploration and development company focused on advancing iron ore, manganese and uranium projects in Australia and East Africa, announces that the Company will shortly begin a new programme of exploration at the Migori greenstone belt in southern Kenya. This belt lies close to the northern limit of the Tanzanian craton.
A 1,000m reverse circulation drilling programme, which can be extended, is scheduled to begin on 4th December, and will initially test the mineralised tailings of the old Macalder gold/base metal mine and a neighbouring gossan.
A possible continuation to the programme will investigate strike and depth extensions to the Macalder mine mineralization.
Simultaneously, further investigation of the line of lode gold occurrences to the south of the Macalder VMS system, and along the west-east trending Migori shear zone, will take place. This will include mapping, re-logging of old core, geological interpretation, and re-assessment of planned drill locations. Five unsampled drill holes completed in 2007 by Kansai Mining Corporation that include mineralised core will be sampled and tested. To the north and east, and parallel to the line of lode gold occurrences, but still within the shear zone, a new target category, altered zones of banded iron formation ("BIF"), will be investigated in preparation for testing by drilling.
Recent field observations on the Migori greenstone belt show a profusion of currently active and historical artisanal gold workings targeting shear-hosted quartz lodes of various scales, and colluvial/alluvial derivatives thereof. These artisanal workings indicate that the auriferous hydrothermal event was operative over the vast majority of the 70km exposed length of the greenstone belt, and are significant in indicating substantial geological gold endowment within the belt. Geological factors identifiable on the ground which show potential, in combination with the shear hosted gold event, to generate mineralisation of commercial scale include the presence of graphitic host rocks and extensive developments of BIF.
BIF is developed in the structurally quiet NW margin of the belt where it is associated with a number of occurrences of stratigraphically related volcanic massive sulphide mineralisation, typified by the Macalder deposit, previously mined by Falconbridge. Where these BIFs cross the main regional axis of shearing they have been tectonically reworked, and shear-focused hydrothermalism has produced a sulphidic overprint. This overprint has since been oxidized above the water table and can be difficult to identify within the lateritic soils and within the already ferruginous BIFs, which may explain why this rock association has not been recognized on this ground to-date. Recent prospecting for the diagnostic relics of this sulphide overprint has succeeded in identifying reworked BIF in eight individual locations within the greenstone belt, and more detailed ground coverage can be expected to identify more such occurrences.
In greenstone belts worldwide such reworked BIFs constitute prime exploration targets, forming ideal structural and chemical traps for auriferous hydrothermal fluids. The association constitutes a major control on mineralisation in the Geita deposit (>10Moz), in a greenstone belt of similar age across the border in Tanzania. This target type has received no exploration attention by previous operators in the Migori area. The target type can be explored using conventional methods of field prospecting, structural mapping, trenching and drilling. The reworked BIF model, now that the key geological ingredients have been identified on the ground, adds substantial exploration upside to the Migori greenstone belt.
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