not just Ethiopia!5 Sep 2019 10:00
21st June 2019
The Hawiah prospect is located in the southwest of the Arabian Shield and the planned exploration programme aims to:
• Define a near-surface, economic gold resource in the gossanous ridge; and
• Simultaneously search for a major copper-gold-zinc sulphide ore body at depth.
Hawiah remains one of KEFI's higher priority prospects as the geological setting is analogous to other large VMS deposits in the Arabian-Nubian Shield that have well-preserved, mature oxidised zones enriched in gold at surface.
Initial surface exploration has confirmed that the main gossanous ridgeline is enriched in gold and the mineralisation has good continuity along strike and has abundant secondary copper showings. Our initial SP geophysical survey indicates it is underlain by a large and continuous, conductive body.
Hawiah's silicified and gossanous horizon was mapped and trenched by the French Geological Survey in the 1980s, which identified its gold-bearing potential.
In February 2015, KEFI completed a first-pass, wide-spaced trenching programme over the 6km-long gossanous ferruginous chert ridge. KEFI's trenches repeated all of the BRGM's trenches, as well as extending the known (6km) exposure to the south and to the north. All of KEFI's trenches contained anomalous gold, including 6m at 2.2g/t gold, 2m at 8.7g/t gold, 6m at 1.9g/t gold, 3m at 5.8g/t gold, 2m at 7.5g/t gold and 8m at 3.0g/t gold.
The BRGM and KEFI results both confirm that gold grades occur with good continuity along the strike length of this 6km-long gossanous ridge.
In order to test the deeper VMS potential, KEFI is using geophysics and geochemistry to define drill targets. SP geophysical surveys were completed over the 6 km-long gossanous horizon during 2015 and 2016. Two strong anomalies were identified:
• An intense north-south trending SP anomaly with a continuous maxima of 350 millivolts, located between 125m and 300m below surface with an 800m strike length. The intensity of this anomaly is consistent with the presence of a massive sulphide source, or to a high and contiguous concentration of disseminated sulphides at depth; and
• A parallel SP anomaly with a similar but less continuous intensity located 600m to the east.
The targets generated by the SP survey are currently being followed-up with a more detailed IP and resitivity geophysical survey. The IP survey is designed to test for electrical conductors down to vertical depth of 500m below surface that are planned to be tested by diamond drilling in Q3 2019.
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