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ABSTRACT: The Tongon Project is located in northern Cte dIvoire in the centre of the Senoufo
greenstone Belt, some 628km north of the capital Abidjan within the 671 km2 Nielle permit. Tongon is at the feasibility stage and benefits from nearby access to relatively well-developed transportation, telecommunications and power systems. The total inferred resource base is 35.96 million
tonnes at a grade of 2.69 g/t Au for more than 3 million ounces of gold. The mineralization at Tongon occurs within two zones, the Northern and Southern Zones (NZ and SZ), over a cumulative
strike length of 3.5km. The NZ Mineralization is found within a single zone, hosted in the immediate hangingwall of a 2 kilometre-long continuous graphitic shear zone which trends 250 to 260
and dips 80 to 70 northwest. This gold mineralization grades between 1.5g/t and 4.5 g/t over
widths of 3 to 24m, and is associated with increased silicification, sulphidation and fine brecciation.
The SZ mineralization is more complex and consists of multiple bodies, between 5 and 50 meters in
width and grading 2 to 9 g/t over 1.5km of strike length. The mineralization is associated with a
broad envelope of biotite-silica-tremolite-diopside-sericite-carbonate alteration within which occur
brecciated and sheared bodies of disseminated arsenopyrite-pyrrhotite-pyrite-gold. In both zones,
the mineralization is still open along strike and at depth. As part of the re-entry strategy in the
northern zone of the country, an 8 hole (1,992m) tactical diamond coring programme was completed at the Tongon project, from June to August 2006. A 30,000m diamond drilling programme
started in March 2007 to form the basis for the final feasibility study which will allow a production
decision and financing arrangements to be made within 2 years. Another 10,000m RAB programme
will test the potential for the 10 other targets of the Nielle permit.
KEYWORDS: Tongon, Cte dIvoire, +3Moz, Northern Zone, Southern Zone
INTRODUCTION
997
Count
49
477
59
141
28
1
339
Metres
8,418m
11,437m
12,095m
3,208m
2,556m
75m
1,176m
Category Mt
Inferred
5.27
Inferred
30.69
Inferred
35.96
g/t Au
2.92
2.65
2.69
Moz
0.49
2.61
3.11
A limited strategic coring programme (8 diamond holes for 1992m) was successfully completed in 2006.
SZ
NZ
Drill line
spacing
50m and 100m
up to 300 meters
deepest mineralized
intersections
200m below surface
120m below surface
998
For the feasibility drilling programme, interhole spacing will be reduced to 50 m x 50m for
both the SZ and NZ, and mineralized intersections will regularly reach 150mBS for the NZ
and 200mBS for the SZ. The RAB programme
will test the potential of the 10 other targets of
the permit.
2. REGIONAL GEOLOGY
Cte dIvoire is situated entirely within the
Leo Rise of West Africa. The western edge of
the country is underlain by the 3.1 2.7 Ga.
Archaean Man Domain whilst the remainder of
the country comprises Palaeoproterozoic
Birimian lithologies of the Baoule-Mossi Domain, which was affected by a major tectonothermal event around 2.1 Ga.
The Ivorian Birimian consists of NEtrending litho-structural domains (Ashanti,
Bondoukou, Bouake, Korhogo, Syama, and
Odienne) separated by metasedimentary belts
(overlap sequence) and affected by 3 main
episodes of deformation. The D1 fabrics,
probably developed during NE-SW to N-S
shortening, were later rotated anti-clockwise
during D2. The complex D2 event is responsible for the main NNE trend and overall geometry (with NE to ENE thrust faults) and has involved major WNW - ESE shortening, which
resolved at times into dextral transpression (for
example, associated late N-S trending folds).
The overlap sequences shows evidence for D2
deformation only.
The Senoufo belt is a more than 200km long
zone of NNE-trending greenschist grade supracrustal lithologies that extends across the
country border into Burkina Faso. The belt
which is bounded on either side by variably tectonised granitoid and gneisses has a distinct
change in the S-N direction from 045 to 030.
Syn to late Birimian felsic to intermediate intrusive bodies occur throughout the region. The
plutons may have intruded dilation zones (flexures in second order structures or at extensional
intersections between first and second order
structures).
Within the Tongon grid, the contact of the
host rocks with the intrusive bodies is a classic
intrusive cooling margin or is sheared, generally striking 230 in the SZ and 250 in the NZ,
with 45 to 75 dips. Minor interbedded intermediate and mafic extrusions are mapped in the
lower half of the belt.
999
5. CONCLUSION
Since Randgold Resources acquired the
Nielle permit in 1996, it has discovered and
partially defined a significant gold deposit at
Tongon.
To date this discovery is considerably larger
than any other gold deposit discovered in Cte
dIvoire and potential exist to further add to the
size of the deposit. Subject to a positive outcome of the bankable feasibility study and the
current political process, the Tongon deposit
will be developed as the companys third gold
mine in West Africa.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The writer acknowledges Randgold resources for permission to publish this extended
abstract and also to all previous Randgold staff
who have contributed to the understanding of
the deposit
REFERENCES
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