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ARADAIB PROSPECT
The initial diamond drill program at the Aradaib prospect has resulted in a new copper/zinc discovery. Aradaib is a new volcanic hosted massive sulphide prospect in northwestern Eritrea on trend with the Company's growing Hambok copper/zinc deposit and Nevsun's Bisha deposit now under development.
The first hole, ARD-10-001, tested a gossan outcrop highly anomalous in gold, copper, zinc, silver and lead returning a 17 meter interval of massive and semi-massive sulphides. Significant assay intervals are shown in the following table:
Weighted averages from ARD-10-001
| Zone |
From
meters |
To
meters |
Interval
meters |
Zn% |
Cu% |
Pb% |
Au g/t |
Ag g/t |
| Oxide-sulphide transition |
63.00 |
73.00 |
10.00 |
1.22 |
1.89 |
0.04 |
0.92 |
21 |
| Sulphide |
73.00 |
80.00 |
7.00 |
15.15 |
0.99 |
0.32 |
0.39 |
33 |
NOTE: The above intervals are drill hole lengths. There is currently insufficient information to determine the true widths of the intervals
The sulphide interval is overlain by gossanous oxidized sulphides and altered hanging wall rocks, with locally intense kaolinite, alunite and hematite alteration from which metals have been leached.
A second hole, ARD-10-002, drilled 230 meters to the northeast, intersected altered host volcanic rocks with pervasive disseminated and stringer sulphides, returning a 3 meter interval of 1.30% Zn from 60.0 meters depth. The remainder of the hole was strongly anomalous in copper and zinc. Recent geological mapping together with the results of ARD-20-002 indicates that the sulphide body intersected in ARD-10-001 plunges moderately to the south.
The Aradaib prospect is located on NGEx's Kerkebet River exploration license and is 75 kilometers north of Nevsun Resources' Bisha deposit (presently under development) and NGEx's Hambok massive sulphide deposit. Nevsun's Bisha deposit contains primary sulphide reserves of 9.71 Mt of 7.21% Zn, 1.14% Cu as well as an oxide cap of 4.02 Mt of 7.99 g/t Au and 33 g/t Ag and a supergene enriched zone of 6.35 Mt of 4.4% Cu (Nevsun Resources website). NGEx's Hambok deposit has an NI 43-101-compliant indicated resource (at a 0.75% zinc cutoff) of 10.7 million tonnes grading 0.98% copper, 2.25% zinc, 6.84 g/t silver, 0.20 g/t gold and an additional inferred resource (at a 0.75% zinc cutoff) of 17.0 million tonnes of 0.85% copper, 1.74% zinc, 5.89 g/t silver, 0.19 g/t gold (Hambok NI 43-101 Technical Report, January 23, 2009 available on www.sedar.com).
The Aradaib prospect consists of a series of gossan and massive barite outcrops over a strike length of over 300 meters and was discovered by NGEx crews during a reconnaissance exploration program. Grab and trench samples collected from barite and gossan outcrops prior to drilling returned assays including 4.2 g/t and 8.9 g/t gold (barite outcrops) and 0.37 g/t gold from a 12 meter trench across the gossan. Base metal values from gossan grab samples were highly anomalous with values up to 1589 ppm copper, 523 ppm zinc and 1735 ppm lead. The highest gold values are associated with barite rich horizons that have not yet been drill tested.
Recent regional mapping and prospecting along strike from Aradaib has discovered altered felsic volcanic rocks with lenses of massive barite anomalous in copper and zinc as far as 2.5 kilometre south of the discovery drill hole as well as altered host rock and magnetic exhalites with coincident zinc-anomalous soil 1.5km northeast (see attached map). The base metal results are from field XRF. Gold results for these new samples are pending. The four kilometer strike extent of prospective geology is being covered with a detailed gravity and ground magnetic survey to trace mineralization under cover. Gravity has been an effective exploration tool for detecting massive sulphide bodies at both Bisha and Hambok. The prospect has easy access and follow-up drilling is planned once the current geophysical survey is complete.
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