Concessions

Kouroufing Concession represents one of the most exciting exploration and development opportunities in the mining sector in Mali. It is one of the most recent concessions acquired by TANEX Resources in Mali. Our Geologists are more than excited about Kouroufing. The Kouroufing concession is located in Kenieba Gold Province, approximately 15 km south of the town with the same name, in the Kayes region of Mali.

 The Kenieba Gold province holds several gold mines (Sadiola in excess of 200 tons, Yatela – 40 tons, Loulo – 120 tons) and deposits (Segala about 40 tons, Tabakoto – 40 tons and Medinandi – 15 tons). Geologists estimate that Mali has enormous potential for further gold discoveries. Exploration activities currently focus on the Birimian Series greenstone belts, in the Kenieba province. Greenstone belts have supplied much of the world's hard-rock gold and the rich Mali greenstones are now proving their worth. Several multinational corporations made substantial new investments in gold mining in Mali since 1996. They are AngloGold Ashanti, Randgold, Orezone, Nevsun, Avnell, North Atlantic and others. To date the annual gold production reaches 50 tons making Mali the third African gold producer and will substantial increase when Syama, Tabakoto and Segala deposits will be brought into production in the near future.

 Highlights of this opportunity from past and recent studies are:

 Significant gold potential: The presence of several targets within the concession that offer a range of opportunities including alluvial, eluvial, and hard rock environments. Gold anomalies have geological setting and features similar to Kalana (45 tons), Segala (45 tons) and Medinandi (about 10 tons) located some 25 km northwest of the concession. Exploration works are undergoing to increase the Medinandi reserves.  

Low technical risks: Conventional mining and leaching technology are anticipated as in existing gold mines in Mali. 

 Low cost production: Characteristics of existing gold deposits, probably free digging nature and simple metallurgy, all points for production being towards the lower end of the cost curve. The gold production cost is $102 US per ounce in Sadiola and about $99 US in Morila, one of the lowest in the world.

 Politically stable environment: The longer term view on political stability and the favourable attitude towards commercial scale mining operations in Mali are borne out by the gold production in Sadiola Hill, Yatela, Morila, Syama, Loulo and Tabakoto gold mines.

Artisanal mining and gold exploitation (termed “orpaillage”) by the indigenous peoples of   Mali has occurred in the Diamana region for centuries. Between 1948 and 2006 Spindler (1949-1950), Arnould (1960 in Diallo M., Kuzmir I, 1985)   SONAREM - Société Nationale de Recherche Miniére – Mali, in 1964-1965, with the technical support of Russian specialists, the BRGM - Bureau de Recherche Géologique et Minière - France, 1972-1974, the Japan International Cooperation Agency – JICA, 1991-1994 and 1997-2001, Randgold Resources (2002-2004)  have explored this part of the country Mali for gold and base metals.  

From 1991 to 1994 MMAJ a program of systematic modern exploration and geological mapping of the area with following coordinates: N10°54'-12°00 and E7°00' – E8°18' covering the Diban concession, resulted from an agreement of cooperation between the Malian government and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) with the technical support of the Mining and Metals Agency of Japan (MMAJ) was undertaken.

 During the first campaign, December 1991 to February 1992, an area of 14,000 km² was subjected to compilation of previous exploration results, Land Sat TM imagery study, and orientation study on laterite, reconnaissance geochemical sampling over the whole area which lead to the identification of 22 anomalies including the Sagala one located within the Diban concession (Au anomalies 20 and Li- 2). 

 The second year of the exploration, extending from June 1992 to March 1993 was focussed in detailed geochemical surveying covering 2,500 km². During the third year an additional 2,000 km², including the Sagala anomaly, was subjected to detail geochemical sampling and geological mapping.

 As results a geological map was completed at scale 1:200 000 for the area of interest covering Bougouni and partly Yanfolila map sheet, more than 22,000 samples were collected. Geochemical samples were collected from 0.4 m along different grids (1,000 m x 250 m; 500 m x 100 m and 100 m x 100m). Where the hard cap exists samples were collected on the surface, from the lateritic duricrust. Samples were dried, screened and 100 g of the fraction minus 80 mesh taken and sent to CHEMEX for analyses. For the first year, 1,100 samples, following elements were assessed (ICP-AES): SiO₂, Al₂O₃, Fe₂O₃, CaO, FeO, MnO, MgO, Na₂O, K₂O, P₂O₅, TiO₂, BaO, LOI. Soil, rock and others geochemical samples, 19,649 in total, were analyzed in the Programme de Developpement des Ressources Minérales – A public Malian laboratory in Bamako for Au, Ag, Cu, Pb, Zn, As, Sb.

The license area is located on a plateau with a relatively flat relief (300 to 400m a.m.s.l.) and occasional undulating hills usually protruding less than 50m from the plateau. The Siguiri gold mine in nearby Guinea is located along strike some 60km southwest of the Balankomana concession.  The mine is operated by AngloGold Ashanti, which holds an 85% interest in the project. The geology of the Siguiri area is similar to that of the Balankomana concession and is dominated by Proterozoic Birrimian rocks, which consist of turbidite facies sedimentary sequences.  Two main types of gold deposits occur in the Siguiri basin and are mined, including laterite mineralization (also referred to as CAP mineralization) which occurs as aprons of colluvial or as palaeochannels of alluvial lateritic gravel adjacent to, and immediately above the in-situ quartz-vein related mineralization hosted in meta-sediments with the more economic mineralization associated with vein stockworks that occur preferentially in the coarser, brittle siltstones and sandstones.  The mineralised host rocks have been deeply weathered to over 100 meters in places to form saprolite mineralization (also referred to as SAP mineralization).  The CAP and SAP ore types were blended and processed using heap-leaching methods for the gold recovery.  The percentage of available CAP ore has decreased and a new CIP plant will treat predominantly SAP ore.TANEXCO provides potential purchasers and licensees with an independent and credible assessment of innovative environmental technologies.

A considerable amount of exploration work has been conducted on the Balankomana concession area over the past three decades, including geological mapping, geochemical soil sampling, airborne and ground geophysical surveys, as well as a RAB drilling campaign. 

The following observations give rise to the belief that the Balankomana license area is prospective for economic gold mineralization: The license area is located within a favorable geological environment within a Birrimian greenstone belt and a known gold field. The large Siguiri gold deposit in Guinea is located along strike of the concession area and hosted within a similar geological and tectonic environment. Elluvial sediments within the license area are mined by artisanals for their gold content, indicating that the underlying lithologies are enriched in gold.  The fact that gold also occurs in the pervasive immature alluvial sedimentary placers (short transport distances) is indicative for a nearby source of the gold. Significant geochemical soil anomalies have been detected in various areas within the license area, including soil enrichment values of over 2g/t Au.

The Kola concession has a total surface area of 600km².  The concession is located some 180km southeast of Bamako near the town of Bougouni (Sikaso region).  One of the largest and lowest-cost gold mines in Mali is located less than 10km to the north of the Kola concession. The nearby Morila mine is a joint venture between AngloGold Ashanti, Randgold and the Mali Government.  One of the industry's greatest success stories of the past decade, Morila last year ranked among the world's top ten mines with production of more than a million ounces. The mine, which went into production in October 2000 with a total cash cost of US$74/oz, was also one of the highest-margin producers in the industry.  Projected production for 2005 indicates a total gold production of some 650,000oz at a recovered gold grade of about 4.4 g/t.  Randgold’s holdings around the Morila mine, one of its priority regions, exceeds 3,000 km² over nine permits where 15 gold targets have been outlined. It recently entered into a joint venture with the Japanese consortium OMRD for a further two permits directly west of Morila. Within the Morila mining lease area, further exploration has led to the development of a new geological model that demonstrates that the Morila orebody is still open along strike and at depth and has a considerable upside.

 The Kola concession is hosted within Birrimian-age meta-sedimentary lithologies that are intruded by mafic dolerite dykes and granodiorites.  The vast majority of the concession area is overlain by laterites that obscure the underlying geology. The nearby Morila mine is a mesothermal flat lying shear-zone hosted deposit that steepens to the east against steep faults. The deposit lies within a sequence Birrimian meta-arkoses of amphibolite metamorphic grade.  Mineralisation is characterised by silica-feldspar alteration and sulphide mineralisation consists of arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite, pyrite and chalocopyrite.

The following facts give rise to the belief that the Kola license area is prospective for economic gold mineralization: 1) The final report by AngloGold Ashanti (January 2005) states that three target areas in particular (K1W & K3S extensions and K6) require additional work, including ground geophysical studies, to identify “Morila-type” mineralization that may not have been detected by soil geochemistry and/or RAB drilling due to it being obscured by the thick laterite cover. 2)  AngloGold Ashanti adopted an approach of exploring for very large-scale bulk tonnage (open cast) deposits with the potential for several million ounces of contained gold.  This approach has ignored the investigation for smaller scale deposits, in particular smaller bulk-tonnage/low-grade deposits and low-tonnage/high-grade mineralization.  The relatively wide line spacing (400m) of the airborne geophysical surveys is indicative of this approach. 

The Kola concession area is located within a prospective geological environment comprising Birrimian greenstone belt lithologies and along strike of the nearby Morila gold deposit.

The inclusion of other gold projects in Mali and elsewhere in West Africa are currently being negotiated by TANEX Resources, including a very important project in the vicinity of Loulo Gold in West Africa, and the Poura Concession. Poura Mine is the largest gold mine in Burkina Faso. Poura reserves are estimated to be around 25 tons. Through 1995, Poura had yielded an estimated 19 tons of gold from high-grade quartz veins.  The total gold production at Poura is expected to be approximately 710kg in year one, 34220 kg in year two, with a cruising throughput of 5,430 kg per year starting year three. The total production cost at inception is estimated to be of €104.89 per ounce of gold (3.70€/gr) to reach €102.90 per ounce of gold (3.63€/gr) at cruising production stage. These results would place Poura as one of the lowest cost operations in the world. In Darset: Significant proven and probable reserves. Located in Adras des Iforas (Northern Mali), in a similar volcanic/sedimentary geology as the Tirek & Amesmessa deposits in Algeria (2.3 Moz). Extensive exploratory activities have been conducted on this concession, delineating 3.9 Moz of gold, including 1.4 Moz of Proven & Probable reserves. TANEX Resources will be proactive in acquiring mineral concessions opportunities in Africa and internationally.