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Joint Venture
Luchon is located 280 km south of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province. The company earns approximately over 75% of the Joint venture company. The Luchun project comprises 21 exploration permits and two mining permits, totalling a massive 442 km2, encompassing several prolific mineralization zones such as Niukong, Niubu Dichu and Niujiaozhai.
The Luchun gold project area is located about 280 kilometres due south of Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China ("PRC") and consists of 18 exploration and two mining permits totaling 442.31 square kilometres. The project area lies immediately southwest of the Red River Suture zone, a strong northwesterly trending fault system developed along the southern margin of the Yangtze platform, close to the Chinese-Vietnamese border. The underlying rock types are dominantly terrestrial sediments and carbonates ranging from Lower Ordovician to Triassic in age, with some later Permian basalt. The area has been complexly folded and faulted with major fold axis and faults trending in a northwesterly direction. A secondary set of faults trends northeasterly. Intrusive rocks are widespread within the general region and include Mesozoic syentic plutons, granitic stocks and Tertiary diabase dykes and sills. The project area is highly vegetated and is underlain by deep oxidization.
Gold mineralization has been identified through a 1:200,000 scale stream sediment geochemical survey conducted by the Yunnan Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources ("YGMR"), a Yunnan government agent. The 18 exploration permits cover the centers of major gold geochemical anomalies within an area of approximately 5,000 square kilometres. Only two of the gold geochemical anomalies, at Niubo-Dichu and Niukong, have been tested by surface trenching in 2001, both of which resulted in the discovery of significant gold mineralization.
Luchon Projects |
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Hercynian Plate Configuration |
Dichu
Dichu Adit Level 1100 |
Main zone has been delineated in surface trenching by prior operators and returned values up to 10.55m averaging 4.43 g/t Au and 4m averaging 14.73 g/t Au. A 6m due diligence sample by B.J. Price in the fall of 2003 returned 20.82 g/t gold.
Dichu Pads |
| Preliminary results obtained from auditing on three levels include underground intercepts of 48.0 grams per tonne (g/t) gold (Au) over 15.5 meters (m) (2.0 true width); 6.5 g/t Au over 13.5m and 12.9 g/t Au over 8.8 meters, and establish extension at depth of the surface mineralization encountered earlier in trenches.
The Dichu mineralized prospect is situated approximately 2.25 kilometres northwest of Niubo prospect and was found by follow up of regional stream sediment geochemical surveys at the same time as Niubo prospect. Soft saprolitic mineralized zones were explored by 9 major trenches spaced at 20 meter intervals. Trenching revealed good gold grades over a strike length of approximately 200 meters and with widths up to 10.5 meters, but averaging about 5 meters. One main zone has been delineated and surface trenching returned values up to 10.55 meters averaging 4.43 g/t gold and 4 meters averaging 14.73 g/t gold. A six metre due diligence sample by B.J. Price in the Fall of 2003 returned 20.82 g/t gold.
Dichu |
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Dichu - Level 1150 m |
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Dichu - Level 1100 m |
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Dichu - Cross Section 100NW |
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Dichu - Cross Section 50NW |
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Dichu - Longitudinal Section
(Gold Grade x Thickness) |
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Dichu - Niubo |
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Dichu - Niubo Geology |
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Dichu - Niubo Longitudinal |
Niubo
Niubo Pit |
Wide surface intersections have been defined in trenches by the previous operator of a small open pit mining operation. The best trench results reported returned 13.47m averaging 18.11 g/t gold. These trenches are no longer accessible as the area has been hand mined by a pit approximately 66m long and up to 30m wide and 20-30m deep. Due diligence sampling by B.J. Price in the fall of 2003 of 1m chips from the zone at the base of the pit averaged 10.15 and 18.80 g/t gold, confirming the high grade gold values of the trenching.
Niubo Small Scale Operation |
| The Niubo-Dichu property is situated approximately 35 kilometres to the south of the Niukong property and includes the separate Niubo and Dichu mineralized prospects. These prospects are hosted in a northwest-trending gold bearing fault structure that has been traced in excess of four kilometres by a soil geochemistry survey. This regional structure remains open both to the southeast and northwest. Gold mineralization is developed along a NW trending fault structure, along the contact between Permian-aged basalts and slates. Gold-bearing zones along the structure are highly oxidized and no sulphide minerals have been noted.
Niubo Fault Structure |
The Niubo mineralized prospect consists of three mineralized lobes that are poorly exposed on surface near the top of a ridge. Exploration and prospecting of regional stream sediment geochemical anomalies led to the discovery of gold bearing oxidized saprolite, which was subsequently successfully exposed by trenching. The best trench results, among others of lower value, returned 13.47 meters averaging 18.11 g/t gold. These trenches are no longer accessible as the area has been hand-mined by a pit approximately 66 meters long and up to 30 meters wide and 20-30 meters deep. Due diligence sampling by B.J. Price in the fall of 2003 of one meter chips from the zone at the base of the pit averaged 10.15 and 18.80 g/t gold, thus corroborating the high grade gold values of the trenching.
Dichu - Niubo |
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Dichu - Niubo Geology |
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Dichu - Niubo Longitudinal |
Niujiaozhai
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Niujiaozhai | An important soil geochemical anomaly supported by rock samples measuring about 3.0 km long by 1.5 km wide has been discovered on the Niujiaozhai property. A total of 720 soils were collected by Maxy on NW trending lines located 500m apart, covering the entire original claim area. Soil results returned highly anomalous Cu and significant coincident gold mineralization (281 samples that returned copper values greater than 500 ppm and 91 samples that returned copper values greater than 1000 ppm Cu) (One sample returned 4200 ppb Au; 17 samples assayed between 100 to 339 ppb Au and 82 samples returned over 50 ppb Au). The anomaly remains totally open to the south and southeast. The area is underlain by gneiss with very minor gabbro. The gneiss consisists of banded biotite-quartz-feldspar gneiss and interlayered granite gneiss.
Niujiaozhai |
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Niujiaozhai |
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Niujiaozhai |
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Niujiaozhai |
Niukong
Niukong | The Niukong prospect is located 35 kilometres north of the Niubo-Dichu prospects. Host rocks are predominately Upper Triassic quartz sandstone and siltstone which have been sheared adjacent to a major northwest trending normal fault, and which places Silurian slates and sandstones in contact with Triassic rocks. Lensoid syentic to granophyric and quartz porphyry and lamprophyre intrusive bodies lie adjacent to the mineralized structures.
Niukong Oxyde Material |
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Four zones (1, 2, 3 and 4) have been prospected, mapped and tested by widespread surface trenching. These zones are bounded by two prominent fault zones, spaced approximately 100 metres apart. A number of additional sub-parallel faults are present. Within each mineralized zone, a number of mineralized strands are present. These strands can be correlated between trenches. Zone 1 is the widest structure and carries the highest gold grades. Due diligence sampling of the Niukong property by Barry Price (press release from December 22, 2003) yielded gold values from grab samples ranging from 0.912 grams/tonne (g/t) to 5.43 g/t while a chip sample on zone 1 returned 9.67 g/t over 6 metres.
Niukong Camp |
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Niukong Small Scale Operation |
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