
WEST AFRICAN TANLOUKA DEPOSIT (1.15Moz)
21 June 2014TANLOUKA DEPOSITÂ
Project Location and Access
The Tanlouka Gold Project is a 79 square kilometre property located in Ganzourgou province within a one hour drive east of the capital city of Ouagadougou.
Access is by 100km paved high way to the village of Mogtedo in Ganzourgou province, and further few km of laterite road to the site.
The project is on a Flat terrain, proximal to a major highway, with good local infrastructure and in an area of low population density.
Channel is in joint-venture with Générale de Mines et de Carriéres (GMC) that holds the exploration permit. Channel Resources earn 90% interest in the Tanlouka project and GMC 10%.
EXPLORATION HISTORY
- Â Historic artisanal mining in the region
-  The original Tanlouka property, under the name of the Bombore permit, was obtained by locally registered Burkinabé Company GMC in 1989.
- Â Channel signed an option agreement with GMC in early 1994.
- Â In January of 2001, a joint venture agreement was conclude with Placer Dome Exploration
- Â In 2003, Orezone took over the Bombore permit and evaluated the area covered by the current Tanlouka permit by drilling five RC holes, which returned negative results and subsequently Orezone dropped the Tanlouka portion of the Bombore permit.
- Â In 2004, GMC applied for the Tanlouka permit, and it was granted on January 27, 2005.
- Â In early 2005 Channel Resources entered into joint-venture with GMC in term of which Channel Resources earn 90% interest in the Tanlouka project and GMC 10%.
- Â First drilled discoveries made in 2010 with 1,100 m RC drill program and a 10,000 m RC drill program in late 2010 tested several structures in the Mankarga Zone.
- Â Mineral Resources Estimate of 1.15 Moz for the Tanlouka project conducted by AMEC Americas Ltd, National Instrument 43-101 compliant released on July 19, 2012.
-  In December 2013, West African acquired Channel Resources Ltd (TSX-V: CHU), which has a 90%-interest in the Tanlouka Project adjacent to West African’s Boulsa Project.
GEOLOGY
Tanlouka gold deposit is located on Bouroum-Yalogo greenstone belt in birimian. The hosting structure is related to southern part of the Markoye Shear Zone, a crustal scale structure that links some of Burkina’s largest gold deposits including Essakane, Bombore , Taparko-Bouroum and Kiaka.
The geology of the Tanlouka area is characterized by metasedimentary and mafic to felsic metavolcanic rocks intruded by ultramafic, diorite and granodiorite intrusions.
Main geological feature is a tongue of granodiorite which protrudes southward from the north-central part of Tanlouka. It appears to divide the supracrustal rocks into two segments:
-  To the east and south of the granodiorite tongue, there are metasediments including argillaceous and graphitic schist and interbedded felsic to mafic meta-volcaniclastics. Rocks in this area have N30°strong foliation and are bounded to the SE by a large granitic mass.
- Rocks to the west and southwest of the tongue are dominated by chloritic schists with interbedded graphitic schists. The dominant foliation/shearing direction is northwest to north north-west.
The mineralized zones of Tanlouka are related to brittle-ductile deformation associated with a sheared intrusive margin. Lithological contacts are preferentially auriferous.
DEPOSIT TYPE
 Tanlouka is currently interpreted to be a gold bearing quartz-vein type of deposit hosted by a shear zone, similar to that found elsewhere in Birimian terranes of West Africa. These hydrothermal deposits are typically late orogenic deposits and have strong structural control.
 MINERALIZATION
On the Tanlouka project, the Mankarga 5 deposit has an outlined mineralized body with a strike length strike length of over 2,300 meters and up to 300 metres wide.
Gold mineralization high-grade structures are associated with silica alteration within metavolcanic and metasedimentary host rocks along a shear zone.
The gold is associated with arrays of quartz veins and veinlets, silica, sulphide, carbonate-albite and tourmaline-biotite alterations. Gold is free and is mainly associated with minor pyrite, chalcopyrite and arsenopyrite disseminations and stringers.
Mineral Resource
Maiden Resources Estimate released July 19, 2012 :
- Estimation conducted by AMEC Americas Ltd
- National Instrument 43-101 compliant
Indicated Mineral Resources:
14.1 Million tonnes @ 0.94 g/t Au: 425,000 Gold Ounces
Inferred Mineral Resources:
29.1 Million tonnes @ 0.78 g/t Au: 729,000 Gold Ounces
(source company web site / press releases).
Category |
Ore Type |
Cut-off Grade |
Quantity |
Grade |
Contained Gold |
(g/t Au) |
(tonnes) |
(g/t Au) |
(ounces) |
||
Indicated |
Oxide |
0.18 |
2,252,000 |
0.89 |
64,000 |
Sulphide |
0.27 |
11,814,000 |
0.95 |
361,000 |
|
Total |
14,066,000 |
0.94 |
425,000 |
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Inferred |
Oxide |
0.18 |
6,933,000 |
0.78 |
174,000 |
Sulphide |
0.27 |
22,140,000 |
0.78 |
555,000 |
|
Total |
 |
29,073,000 |
0.78 |
729,000Â |
NB: Some of the pictures  are modified from company public data