Erongo Energy's broad gold strikes highlight open pit potential...

Erongo Energy's broad gold strikes highlight open pit potential at Maniema in the DRC
Thursday, November 17, 2011 by Christine Feary
Erongo Energy's broad gold strikes highlight open pit potential at Maniema in the DRC

Erongo Energy (ASX: ERN) has identified gold mineralisation at open pittable depths at the Maniema Gold Project in east central Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Results from the first two holes at Maniema include:

- 18 metres at 2.03g/t gold from 68 metres, including 4 metres at 6.38g/t gold; and
- 16.65 metres at 2.02 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 33.35 metres, including 5.5 metres at 4.97g/t gold.

Full results from the seven hole, 600 metre drilling program are expected by mid-December.

The program is designed to test 700 metres of strike associated with a soil anomaly of more than 1 kilometre.

Erongo has faced challenges in drilling at Maniema, due to lithologies in the upper 50 metres changing regularly between very hard and soft material.

Geological conditions at Maniema are similar to those at Banro’s Twangiza deposit in the DRC, which is due to enter production in late 2011.

Twangiza has a Measured and Indicated Resource of 5.6 million ounces of gold and an Inferred Resource of 400,000 ounces.

Erongo’s Maniema Project covers 1,800 square kilometres in the Maniema Province, in a major Precambrian orogenic-metallogenic province.