A British firm, has announced that its associated company, Moydow Holdings Limited (Moydow), has commenced drilling at its Paimasa Project in Nigeria.
The diversified gold exploration and development company with assets in West Africa and India, said the drilling commenced through Moydow’s joint venture company, Gurara Holdings Limited (Gurara).
The company made the announcement in a disclosure sent to the London Stock Exchange.
It explained that the Paimasa Project is located in central Nigeria, approximately 115km north-northwest of the capital city Abuja.
A programme of 300m diamond and 1250m reverse circulation (RC) drilling is proposed, it said.
Previous drilling by Moydow in nearby tenements at the Dagma prospect, approximately 45km to the north-northwest, resulted in the identification of significant gold mineralisation within quartz veins discovered by artisanal miners.
Highlights of the project include extensive artisanal mining activity on several sub-parallel quartz veins.
The company said there was no previous drilling in the strategic new frontier in West Africa, adding that there is additional target at the Mint prospect, approximately 1.5 km away ‘along strike with similar veining’ – a potential for large scale mineralised system.
It added that the site has “excellent infrastructure” – only 115km from the capital city Abuja and Strong local partner in PW Nigeria Mining Limited (PW Mining) with significant in-country infrastructure and logistics.
Background
The disclosure said Moydow’s Nigerian projects are located within the Benin-Nigerian Shield (BNS) which is comprised of Archaean and Proterozoic basement rocks (migmatites and gneisses) that have been remobilised during the Pan-African orogeny 650-550 million years ago (Ma).
“Within this shield area, elongate zones of schist occur that are interpreted as metamorphosed volcanic-sedimentary belts that have been dated to about the time of the Pan-African event i.e. younger than 650Ma,” it said.
“While these rocks are not generally as prolific a host for gold mineralisation as the Kenema-Man Shield that occurs to the west, separated by a major continental scale zone of thrusting and faulting, there is nevertheless significant artisanal gold mining activity throughout the sequence, particularly within the schist belts.
“Recent exploration has resulted in the discovery of a significant gold deposit within the BNS – the Segilola Gold Deposit owned by TSX-V listed Thor Explorations Ltd. This deposit has published Indicated and Inferred resources of 3.75Mt @ 5.24g/t Au (632,000oz), and is hosted within the Ilesha Schist Belt of the BNS.”
It added that Moydow currently holds two main projects, both hosted within schist belts in the BNS