MINING IN GUINEA
CDGTN
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CAMARA DIAMOND & GOLG TRADING NETWORK (CDGTN), a subsidiary to Tigui Mining Group, is a junior mining company located in Guinea, West Africa. We acquire and develop mining assets with a focus on gold, diamond and associated minerals.
The company currently owns mining assets that include Kerouane-Macenta and Siguiri gold and diamond permits, all of which are located in Guinea. Collectively these two properties total 356 km2.
Kerouane-Macenta diamond Mine consists of blocks totaling 280 km2. CDGTN holds three research permits for diamond and associated minerals, valid for a period of two years renewable.The diamond licenses are in the southern part of the Guinean diamond triangle, which hosts the majority of the country’s alluvial and hardrock diamond potential.They are adjacent to Rio Tinto’s Simandou iron ore project and Stella Diamond’s concession.
Siguiri gold Mine occupies 76 km2 of five semi- industrial exploitation permits valid for five years.The Siguiri mine is located almost entirely within the Siguiri Basin of northeast Guinea and is predominantly made up of Proterozoic Birimian rocks. The Siguiri mine is adjacent to SAG, which is one of Ashanti Gold's largest mines in Africa.
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GOLD
Siguiri Project
Tigui Mining Group (TMG) holds 100% interest in the CDGTN Siguiri Gold mine property.
Camara Diamond & Gold Trading Network (CDGTN) commissioned SRK Exploration Limited (SRK ES) to undertake a desk based technical review of the company’s five contiguous gold assets, which comprise the Siguiri Gold Project.
The Siguiri Gold Project is a grassroots exploration project, located in the Siguiri Basin of northeast Guinea, West Africa. The project covers an area of 76 km2 and is located some 850 km northeast of the Guinean capital Conakry.
The units of the Birimian Supergroup overthrusted onto the Man Shield nucleus and the emplacement of a number of intrusive units dominate the geology of the Siguiri basin during the Eburmean Orogeny in the Paleo-Proterozoic.
The Siguiri Project is located almost entirely within the Siguiri Basin and is predominantly made up of Proterozoic Birimian rocks, sequences of fine-grained sedimentary facies and low level metamorphosed greenschists.
These are further locally intercalated with layers of black schist, sandstone and limestone. From SRK ES review, it is believed that no previous exploration work was carried out over the license area, although Societe Ashanti Goldfields de Guinee (SAG) previously held the license prior to retroceding it.
CDGTN then acquired the license in 2010.Further review illustrates that the outcropping units within the Siguiri Gold Project host significant gold mineralization elsewhere within the wider basin.
The most notable of these are the two locally producing gold mines of Siguiri and Lefa, where mineralization appears to have preferentially developed in the more permeable, coarser grained sediments (such as siltstones and sandstones). Mineralization here is also related to fracture zones and vein stockworks related to large-scale deformational structures. CDGTN’s Siguiri Gold Project appears to contain common characteristics to these two deposits and other known mineral occurrences within the basin.
Commercial mining in the region today is focused on targeting gold concentrated in primary in-situ quartz vein stockwork zones and the underlying metasediments, while local artisanal miners concentrate on exploiting the placer gold deposits found in the greater Siguiri region. A number of important mineral occurrences were highlighted by Mamedov, V (2010) which surround the CDGTN project area.
The most notable of these are the two locally producing gold mines of Siguiri and Lefa, where mineralization appears to have preferentially developed in the more permeable, coarser grained sediments (such as siltstones and sandstones). Mineralization here is also related to fracture zones and vein stockworks related to large-scale deformational structures. CDGTN’s Siguiri Gold Project appears to contain common characteristics to these two deposits and other known mineral occurrences within the basin.
Commercial mining in the region today is focused on targeting gold concentrated in primary in-situ quartz vein stockwork zones and the underlying metasediments, while local artisanal miners concentrate on exploiting the placer gold deposits found in the greater Siguiri region. A number of important mineral occurrences were highlighted by Mamedov, V (2010) which surround the CDGTN project area.
Current exploration in the Siguiri region is focused on identifying mineralization in the saprolite, using geophysics, soil geochemistry and drilling to develop robust geological models.Therefore, following their review, SRK ES believes that the five permits hold reasonable potential to host primary gold mineralization and that modern systematic exploration is merited.
SRK ES therefore suggests a work plan aimed at further evaluating the Siguiri project to ultimately develop drillable targets. It involves a phased, systematic approach that would initially be directed at evaluating the entire project area before progressively reducing the exploration area to focus on the most prospective targets. Once the most prospective targets have been defined and deemed as potentially economic, an exploration drilling campaign would be conducted, leading to a resource-drilling program (should results be positive).
CONCLUSION
From a review of the location of the licences against the position of other known gold projects and the extent of the Siguiri Basin, SRK ES's initial opinions on the licences are that they mostly lie within the Siguiri Basin and comprise predominantly Proterozoic rocks of Birimian Greenstone terrain, which are considered prospective for shear hosted gold mineralisation.
Looking at gold mines within the region such as Anglogold Ashanti's Siguiri Mine and Nord Gold N.V. Lefa Mine, information can be sought on the type of gold mineralisation that may be expected within CDGTN's project area. This information can be used to guide exploration.
A common feature in the Lefa and Siguiri gold mines is that in both these deposits mineralisation appears to have preferentially developed in the more permeable coarser grained sediments such as siltstones and sandstones, with fracture zones and vein stockworks also providing favorable sites for gold mineralisation.
The presence of siltstones and sandstones within CDGTN'
s license area and interpreted NNE trending structure to the south of the license area is positive in terms of the prospectivity of the license area.
There are a number of streams flowing across and peripheral to the licence area. It appears that the streams drain the licence area to both the north and more dominantly to the south, therefore any anomalies within stream sediments would likely be indicative of primary gold within the licence area.
Following their review, SRK ES believes that the five permits hold reasonable potential to host primary gold mineralisation and that modern systematic exploration is merited.
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In 2018, TMG signed an exploration contract for further researches on these licenses.
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The Kerouane and Macenta diamond mining concession consists of blocks totaling 280 square kilometers. Tigui Mining Group (TMG) holds 100% interest in the property.
CDGTN holds three diamond licenses on the property which is located in the Macenta and Kerouane Districts in the southeast of the Republic of Guinea, approximately 750 km east of the capital Conakry. The diamond licenses are situated within the southern portion of the Guinean diamond triangle, which hosts the majority of the country’s alluvial and hardrock diamond potential. The permits are divided as follow:
· Kerouane Permits are 189km2
· Macenta Permits are 91km2
CDGTN required an independent report to summarize the prospectivity of the three license areas. Based on existing data that CDGTN sourced and provided to SRK ES, SRK ES prepared a series of recommendations for next step exploration activities and potential multi-disciplinary studies. These recommendations were intended to direct the process of taking each project through the stepped process of defining Mineral Resources. The report may be then used for fund raising and to attract investors who will support the development of the licenses.
It is unclear what level of commodity-specific and detailed commercial exploration has been conducted in these areas in the past although commercial companies presently operating around the area of interest may have historically undertaken work here. The Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minieres (France)(‘’BRGM’’) conducted regional geological mapping and exploration in the mid -20th century on behalf of the Guinea government.
In Phase I, SRK ES proposes to undertake a desk based review of all the historical data sourced by CDGTN, relating to the licenses and to incorporate this with any relevant open source data that SRK ES is able to obtain. Phase II and Phase III have been outlined in the term of Reference section of the proposal.
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SRK ES will provide a concise, detailed cost estimate for Phase II work based on past experiences, which CDGTN will then be able to use for budgeting purpose.
Phase I Scope of work:
The review will consider and include:
· Prospectivity of the license areas
· Historical mining
· Level and detail of existing data
· Quality and reliability of the existing data
· Broadly determine the most prospective areas to the available data
· Review of any existing mineral resources
· Exploration strategy
· Recommendations towards Phase II (project development)
The data sourced by CDGTN include:
· Exploration reports
· Geological setting
· Historic mining and production
· Geological and drilling reports
· Satelite imagery and geological maps
· Exploration license boundary
· Infrastructure and logistics network
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Key permits characteristics:
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· Located in the highly prospective Kerouane – Kissidougou – Macenta Diamond Triangle
· Evidence of artisanal mining
· Major multinational diamond mining companies near the permit
The licensed area is underlined by Archaean-age rocks of the Man Craton that consists principally of the magmatic granites, granite-gneisses, amphibolites and rare, quartzites. The rocks are intruded by dolerites of suspected Jurassic age and Cretaceous-age kimberlites. The kimberlites occur within a well-defined structural corridor referred to as the Bounoudou kimberlite zone.
Permits are located in the Gbonodou area, which has a history of significant diamond mineralization.
This area is one of the most prolific sources of mined diamonds in Guinea for its high grade and shallow alluvial deposits near Gbonodou. These also include diamond-bearing kimberlites and associated secondary diamond deposits.
Permits lie within the valley of the Dani River (a large north-south flowing river that drains into the Atlantic through Liberia). To the west is the Ziami Mountain range where summits rise to over 1300m. North is the Ziami Mountain’s summit with altitudes between 800m and 950 m. This upland is drained partly by the headwaters of both the Diani and Milo Rivers, a north flowing tributary of the Niger River.
The high grades from bulk sampling at the Katcha Dyke at the northwest region of Droujba Project demonstrates its potential for Stellar Diamond to enlarge the project’s resource base, because of the presence of several large near gem quality diamonds up to 15.8 carats in size.
LOCATION
CDGTN’s permits are located in southeastern Guinea centered on the village of Gbonodou, which lies approximately 48km east of Macenta. The current exploration license is adjacent to West African Diamonds and Friendship Diamonds, both of which are fully own subsidiaries of Stellar Diamonds Plc. The current license was issued to CDGTN in 2010. Previously, African Diamond Friendship had performed work on CDGTN’s permits. CDGTN's permits are easily accessible by road; it is approximately 800km from Conakry.
The nearest landing strip is in Macenta with a 1.5-hour flight time to Conakry. During the summer of 2011, CDGTN performed mineralization studies. The main diamond deposits in Guinea are located in the prefectures of Kerouane, Kissidougou, and Macenta. The Baoule, Milo and Dani Rivers support the area. Some of industry leaders, such as DeBeers, Stellar Diamonds and The Aredor Concession, have a presence in this region.
GUINEA
Country presentation
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Located on the Atlantic Coast of West Africa, 10° north of the equator with a coastline of 320 km.
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It shares its borders with Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
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The country has a land area of 245,000 km2.
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Population: 11.780 Million (2015 estim), with women making up more than half of the population.
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GDP at market prices (current US$): $6.733 Billion
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GDP Composition by sector: agriculture: 19.7%; industry: 37.2%; services: 43.1%
Learn more about mining and agriculture in Guinea (reprendre le texte ci dessous et en faire un lien)
The mining sector in Guinea contributes around 25% of the country’s income, - with bauxite production being by far the most important contributor-, and provides 80% of Guinea’s foreign exchange earnings. Guinea is richly endowed with natural resources, especially minerals.
The country possesses over 25 billion metric tons of bauxite, thought to be up to one half of the world’s reserves. In addition, Guinea also has over 4 billion tons of high-grade iron ore, significant gold and diamond reserves, and undetermined amounts of uranium and prospective oil reserves. There are an estimated few hundred tons of gold in Guinea in the form of primary and secondary deposits. Primarily located in Upper Guinea, particularly in the Siguiri basin, these deposits are used for
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artisanal, semi-industrial and industrial purposes.
The major known deposits of diamonds are located in the Kérouané, Kissidougou and Macenta prefectures, along the Baoulé, Milo and Diani rivers. Other discoveries have been made in Western Guinea, particularly west of Kindia and, less frequently, near Forécariah. These diamonds are generally of a high quality with a marked predominance of jewelry-quality stones. Total resources are currently estimated at 25 to 30 million carats, but actual potential is unknown at present.
A new mining code introduced in mid-1995 offers a range of guarantees and tax incentives to new investors, who may now own up to 85% of any venture in Guinea.
Guinea has tremendous agriculture potential offering numerous opportunities for accelerating growth and creating lasting jobs. Agriculture accounts for 24% of GDP and engages 84% of the active population. The sector has long been focused on traditional food production, including crops such as rice, cassava, corn, yams, bananas, sweet potatoes, fonio, peanuts, mangoes and pineapples.
While the country offers ideal agro-climatic conditions, with a stable temperature, abundant rainfall and sunshine, only 2.6% of Guinea's arable land area is cultivated. The country lacks the capital and technical knowledge needed to benefit from its natural resources.
The Government has identified agriculture as a key area of growth on the same level as mining. The private sector plays a leading role in developing a modern sustainable and productive agricultural sector notably in the sectors of supply, production, marketing and agricultural services.
