Canadian firm starts drilling programme for gold in Eritrea
April 7, 2006 (MONTREAL) — The Canadian based MDN NORTHERN MINING (MINIERES DU NORD) (TSX:MDN) announced the start of a drilling campaign at the Harab Suit exploration licence in northwest Eritrea.
The 260 km2 area is underlain by metavolcanic and metasediments and dioritic intrusives, and is traversed by major shear zones. One of these shear zones hosts the abandoned Tamanti gold mine, which was operated during the Italian colonial era in Eritrea during the late 1930s.
Two prime targets have been identified from extensive surface sampling programs conducted over the last two years, the Tamanti mine area itself and “Area 2”, approximately 4 km to the south west of the mine.
Access to these sites required the rehabilitation of some 40 km of old roads with the use of heavy earthmoving equipment.
It is planned to drill test Area 2 with at least fifteen reverse circulation inclined drill holes arranged in “fences” across the strike of the shear zone at hole depths of between 60 and 120 m.
It is then planned to move the drill to the site of the old Tamanti mine, where more than twelve sites have been located to test the extent of the mineralization identified from surface sampling.
The Australian drilling contractor General Exploration Drilling has been retained to carry out the programs.
The samples will be crushed and prepared in Eritrea by a local laboratory and despatched to Genalysis Laboratories in Perth, Australia for assay.
MDN NORTHERN MINING is a Montreal-based Canadian exploration company that holds a 30% interest in the Tulawaka gold project (Tanzania), which went into commercial production in March of 2005, a majority interest in 25 adjacent mineral licenses in Tanzania, a majority interest in three licenses in Eritrea, and other gold and base metal exploration interests in Quebec, Canada.
(Market Wire Incorporated/ST)