LONDON (Alliance News) - West African Minerals Corp Tuesday said it has found two zones of iron mineralisation in coastal regions of Cameroon and Sierra Leon following data gathering and trenching tests.
The iron ore mining and exploration company said that data gathering on the Sanaga lease on the coast of Cameroon has shown several areas of surface level magnetite-bearing rocks with grades ranging from 29.1% iron to 66.3% iron.
The company said that previous ground gravity and magnetic geophysical surveys of the site have helped to confirm large anomalies linked to the mapped exposures of magnetite-rich mineralised material at surface.
West African said that as a result of the findings, a reconnaissance drilling programme consisting of 1,500 metres of drilling and preliminary metallurgical test work at the Sanaga site started on July 17 and is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2014.
The company said that trenching tests at its Madina lease in Sierra Leone has helped to delineate an exploration target with over 1.5 kilometres of strike length and an average width at surface of roughly 220 metres.
West African said that preliminary assay results from the trenching has shown the presence of a robust region between 40 and 210 metres depth at grades between 38.5% iron and 41.4% iron.
As such, the company said a work programme is now being developed to delineate additional exploration targets at the site.
West African said that follow up drilling of previously defined targets at its Binga lease in Cameroon are now being deferred until results of reconnaissance drilling at the Sanaga lease are known.
The company also announced that surface iron mineralisation has been mapped on two more geophysical anomalies on its Lele and North Djadom leases in Cameroon.
"We have made significant progress over all of our licenses in the last quarter and correlations in airborne geophysics, mapping and ground geophysics have combined to yield two potentially significant new discoveries in the near coastal regions and confirmed the potential for additional discoveries on the interior leases," President Brad Mills said in a statement.
"Importantly, with the discovery of the new set of targets at Sanaga, in addition to the previously reported Binga resource, we now have two potential start-up opportunities in close proximity to existing and developing rail and port infrastructure," Mills added.
West African Minerals shares were up 13% to 6.09 pence, putting it amongst the top three AIM All-Share risers on Tuesday.
By Tom McIvor; tommcivor@alliancenews.com; @TomMcIvor1
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