Results of both holes have again confirmed the close association between the
mafic igneous unit and gold mineralisation at Sanankoro, the company said, as well as the typical vertical dip of the geological units.
Alt's recent ten hole RC program reported here has confirmed the historical results intercepting broad zones of low-level gold in a series of ultramafic and
mafic schists with sulphidic shales and cherts.
Several new surface sampling programs have been completed, with work targeting both potential Primrose Shear related gold occurrences as well as potential nickel-cobalt targets in the southern
mafic suite areas.
Stratigraphy along the Rau Project dominantly consists of Cambrian to Devonian aged carbonates (dolostones, silty limestones, fossiliferous limestones) interbedded with thin
mafic volcaniclastic flows, as well as siltstones and shales.
He said the project entailed assessment of
Mafic, Ultramafic and Granitic Complexes.
The property geology contains the contact between Confederation and Balmer Assemblage rock units as well as folded
mafic and ultramafic volcanics with
mafic and felsic intrusives also present.
The intrinsic characteristics including textures, mineralogy and degree of weathering of the
mafic and ultramafic rocks of the Jijal complex are investigated and correlated with their respective physical, mechanical and aggregate properties.
Work got under way with multi-element laboratory assaying of more than 1.000 soil samples from across 14 identified nickel-bearing
mafic to ultramafic intrusions.
Subsequently, albitisation transformed scapolite metagabbro and regionally distributed
mafic and granitoid rocks to albitites, dominated by albite, with varying amounts of rutile, carbonate, chlorite, and locally prehnite, pumpellyite, and analcime.
They make it possible to apply magnetic and spectrometric geophysical methods as
mafic and ultramafic igneous and metamorphic rocks normally contain the greatest quantity of magnetic minerals (high magnetic susceptibilities) and the least abundance of radiometric minerals.
Fox and van Berkel (1988) speculated that some ultramafic enclaves represent relics of the Long Range mafic-ultramafic complex and/or Glover Group, whereas Currie and van Berkel (1989) suggested that some
mafic bodies represent Silurian plutons, similar to intrusions previously recognized near the Annieopsquotch ophiolite (e.g., Dunning 1981; Dunning et al 1990) and Grand Lake (Whalen et al.
To the immediate east of Island on their Bellevue property, they have followed a large magnetic anomaly suggesting the potential for a
mafic intrusion below surface, very similar to the nickel-copper deposits in Sudbury.
