Hummingbird Resources plc’s acquisition of the Central licence has increased its Dugbe gold project in southern Liberia to 2,565km2.
BUKON JEDEH
The new 210km2 area forms the core to the southern part of the project and includes Bukon Jedeh located 8km southeast of Dugbe’s large Tuzon deposit.
Pasofino Gold Ltd has an earn in option of 49% in the project on meeting defined feasibility studies and exploration commitments.
The Canadian company said that renewed exploration aimed to identify an open-pittable deposit that could potentially be processed at a mining complex at Tuzon-Dugbe F.
Exploration will focus on 16km of prospective strike beginning with the mineralisation previously identified.
Hummingbird chief executive Dan Betts added that the new licence represented a “significant project enhancement with exceptional prospectivity.”
“The area is well known for its artisanal gold workings and additionally benefits from a previous drilling dataset of high-grade intersections.
“This, coupled with our already large drilling dataset adds to our knowledge, development and exploration potential for the region.”
DEPOSITS
Dugbe lies within the southwest of the Birimian supergroup, which hosts the majority of West African gold deposits.
Hummingbird discovered two gold deposits, Dugbe F and Tuzon in 2009 and 2011, and completed 74,497m of diamond coring of which 70,700m was at the two sites.
In 2019, the company signed a 25-year mineral development agreement with the Government of Liberia and has so far spent more than $70 million on the project.
In 2012 and 2013, Equator Resources Ltd drilled a total of 80 holes and 6,500 metres within Bukon Jedeh showing between 3.55 g/t and 6.20 g/t gold.
Pasofino said that both deposits outcropped at surface and may be amenable to open-cut mining.
There were also a number of prospects within the project, including ‘Sackor’ where gold mineralisation had been intersected in drill-holes.
The companies plan an “aggressive” exploration programme to test the prospects
Gold mining has reportedly taken place in the area since around 1935 from ‘mega placers’ and weathered bedrock.
At the ’99 steps mine’ and ‘S/SPMC mine’ artisanal workers extract gold from bedrock from depths of up to 50m.