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Busy year for exploration in Africa

PEGMATITE DRILLING SRK Exploration Services have worked on 25 African exploration projects so far this year

PEGMATITE DRILLING SRK Exploration Services have worked on 25 African exploration projects so far this year

19th October 2018

     

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Exploration in gold has been the main driver of its busy work schedule in Africa this year, while precious gems have also seen strong demand, says engineering consulting firm SRK Exploration Services (SRK ES) senior exploration geologist Oliver Bayley.

“We have worked on 25 African exploration projects so far this year, supporting Southern African projects from our new office in Johannesburg and projects in West and North Africa from our Cardiff office in the UK.”

He says gold makes up half of the company’s projects, while it has multiple diamond and sapphire projects running – with a ruby project evaluation scheduled for the next few weeks.

SRK ES is currently exploring in Rwanda, Egypt, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Eritrea, and, this year, the company has also completed fieldwork in South Sudan, Guinea, Mozambique, Namibia, Sierra Leone and South Africa.

“Interest in lithium is still strong and we have worked on drilling and other exploration for pegmatite-related lithium-tin-tantalum deposits in Mozambique, Rwanda and Namibia this year,” says Bayley.

He notes that the company has also worked on platinum-group elements, bauxite, copper-cobalt, iron-ore and hard-rock ilmenite and have seen an increase in demand as the year rolled on.

Innovation

Bayley explains that exciting innovations have included the use of the latest generation soil sample assay techniques to identify mineralisation below thick cover sequences in Rwanda.

“The technique selected by SRK ES measures ultra-low concentrations of 60 elements – down to 0.1 parts per billion (ppb) for many elements and 0.02 ppb for gold – and strips out only those elements held by weak ionic bonds into solution, rather than dissolving the soil particles themselves.”

He says this means that the company can measure small concentrations of elements that have been transported through overlying cover in ionic form, allowing anomalies to be identified that would have previously been missed.

“It was very successful when tested above known base-metal and lithium-cesium-tantalum pegmatite targets, with clear multi-element anomalies observed in the data.”

Abu Ghalaga Project

At the Abu Ghalaga iron-titanium oxide cumulate deposit in the Egyptian Red Sea Hills, where SRK ES had full responsibility for exploration, the orebody forms an elongated lens within regional metagabbros and later granitic intrusive.

According to SRK ES’s senior exploration geologist in Cardiff, Colin Rawbone, the target mineralisation comprises both massive cumulate oxides as well as disseminated mineralisation interspersed with gabbroic bands and lenses.

“So far, drilling has shown that the deposit extends for more than 150 m downhole at its thickest. “We were contracted to design, manage and undertake this year’s drilling programme, and to undertake a scoping study and fatal flaw assessment before multidisciplinary work is undertaken to develop a mine plan,” Rawbone says.

Over a four-month period, SRK ES completed detailed geological mapping, a magnetic survey and a diamond drill programme to define the deposit; the company is also responsible for import-export procedures and preparing and maintaining the infrastructure on site to allow operations to continue.

“Diamond drilling was provided by drilling solutions company Energold Drilling Corporation, and SRKES undertook all logging including geological, geotechnical, structural, magnetic susceptibility and density analysis, as well as instigating a full sampling and quality assurance or quality control programme.”

In anticipation of advancing other technical areas of Abu Ghalaga, SRK ES also collected data on water depths, topography, local populations and infrastructure, providing this to other SRK teams for the design and evaluation of the environmental, social, hydrogeological and conceptual mine design aspects of the scoping study.

“SRK’s involvement in the project remains ongoing, with new exploration planned for iron-ore in the region. A second phase of resource drilling at Abu Ghalaga is also under consideration,” Rawbone concludes.

Edited by Zandile Mavuso
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor: Features

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