The Tanganyika Gold Project tackles a vein-hosted gold deposit near Lake Tanganyika in south-eastern Africa. After gold was discovered in the 1940s, preliminary exploration was undertaken which continued through the 1950s. Historical mining operations on some prospective areas reported phenomenal gold grades. In recent times, local artisanal mining has been the dominant activity in the area.
Geologically, the deposit is situated in the Ubendian Belt which is a linear orogenic belt located in south-eastern Africa. The Ubendian Belt comprises high-grade metamorphic rocks including granulites, migmatites, amphibolites as well as younger intrusive granites and gabbros/diorites. The contact between granite and diorite is usually marked by intrusive quartz veins which can be mineralised with gold. This project focused on these gold-bearing quartz veins.
Minrom Consulting was appointed by a respected investments company in the to perform a geological due diligence on the project. This evolved with the development of a chunky economic model into a project evaluation.
Historically, the project has seen several phases of exploration including geological mapping, soil sampling, grab sampling, trenching and limited drilling. During the investigation Minrom validated all available data on the project and combined the validated data into a usable database. A site visit was performed aiming to verify the historical mapping, trenching, drilling and sampling data. This was followed up by metallurgical test work on samples obtained from the field.
The site visit was succeeded by developing a high-level 3D geological model and block model for the project. Using the grade block model, an economic evaluation was performed looking at various realistic mining methods, focusing on a small-scale expandable operation.
The results showed that even with conservative parameters, the project has a minable resource with significant upside potential if further exploration is carried out. Minrom is excited about the next phases of exploration and the proving of resource and reserve numbers. Minrom has recommended that further delineation and definition diamond drilling be performed on existing targets as well as further mapping, soil sampling and geophysical studies on extended targets. The core need be thoroughly studied, analysed and characterised to determine the metallurgical characteristics to be incorporated into a geo metallurgical model.
