Last checked at 5 Jun 2008 07:00
GOLDSTONE RESOURCES LTD
GRANT OF EXPLORATION PERMITS
The Directors of GoldStone Resources Ltd ("GoldStone" or the "Company") are pleased to announce that the Company has been granted two gold exploration permits in Mali, West Africa.
The Baroya and Metedia permit areas the "Permit Areas") are contiguous and occupy a total area of 15 square kilometres, close to the international border with Senegal in the south-western gold belt of Mali. The granted permits are within 8 km of the Tabakoto/Segala gold mine, which went into production during 2006 and was recently acquired by Avion Resources. The permits grant the Company exclusive exploration rights for a period of three months. At the end of this period the Company may elect to renew the permits for a second evaluation period of three months or apply for a prospecting licence valid for a period of two years. A further area adjacent to the Permit Areas is still under application with the Malian Director of Geology and Mines ("DNGM").
Previous Exploration and Prospectivity
The Permit Areas have previously been explored by various Malian and international companies. The most recent report available from the DNGM for the Permit Areas is dated 2003 and indicates that exploration was discontinued on the Permit Areas during 2003 when the gold price was approximately US$350 per ounce and also before the Tabakoto gold mine entered into production.
A review of the available reports of previous soil sampling, trenching and drilling programmes indicates that the Permit Areas and the area that is still under application contain several gold anomalies. Any follow up field exploration programme over the next three months may however be limited by the West African rainy season from June to November and exploration work will be primarily focused on the review and assessment of available data, which could include the review of soil geochemistry, geophysical surveys, satellite images, previous structural interpretations as well as the locations of boreholes and trenches. The interpretation of this data will be completed in a GIS environment, which will help to evaluate the prospectivity of the Permit Areas and the focus of any future exploration. A field visit is planned to confirm previous borehole and trench locations and possibly also to conduct a limited soil geochemistry orientation study.
APPROVAL
Dr. Hendrik Schloemann, who holds a PhD in Geochemistry has reviewed and approved the content of this announcement.
Enquiries:
GoldStone Resources Ltd 00 27 21 794 4004
Dr. Hendrik Schloemann (Director of Exploration) / Jurie Wessels (Finance Director)
Hanson Westhouse Limited 0113 246 2610
Tim Feather / Matthew Johnson