Morogoro (Gold)
Key Facts
Gold
Morogoro and Dodoma Regions, Tanzania
~8,900 km2
100%
Ruvu Nappe
None (early stage projects)
• Regional stream and soil sampling
• Geological mapping and sampling
• Geological mapping and sampling
Location
The Morogoro Project comprises 33 mineral licences and applications covering an area of ~8,900 square kilometres and is situated in the Morogoro and Dodoma regions of central and south eastern Tanzania. Access is by a network of gravel and tarred roads in varying stages of repair linking to the well maintained and busy central east-west Dar es Salaam to Dodoma road. The project can be conveniently divided into two large licence blocks, the Morogoro Licence Block (MLB) and the Dodoma Licence Block (DLB), each comprising smaller blocks of contiguous and non-contiguous licence blocks at various stages of application, offer, issue and renewal. The Morogoro Licence Block comprises mineral tenements covering an area of ~ 4,900 km 2 located south and west of the town of Morogoro. The Dodoma Licence Block comprises mineral tenements covering an area of ~4000 km 2 east of Dodoma . Both Licence Block significantly increases the Company’s footprint in this newly emerging gold field in eastern Tanzania where, prior to the acquisition of Morogoro Gold Limited (Morogoro Gold), it had just one prospecting licence.Geology
The Morogoro project covers a non-traditional gold exploration area dominated by Proterozoic age high grade metamorphic rocks in eastern Tanzania.The prospectivity of the project has been enhanced by the on-going discoveries of new areas of gold mineralisation by itinerant artisanal miners and by the recent Magambazi gold discovery of Canaco Resources Limited near the town of Handeni 30 km north east of the DLB. The southeastern part of the DLB is contiguous with an area of alluvial and hard rock gold mining and preliminary stream sediment sampling by Morogoro Gold in this part of the DLB has returned anomalous gold values. The MLB includes part of the rugged Uluguru mountains and the Company has already identified a major geological structure, the Ruvu Nappe, that it believes has important implications for gold mineralisation in this area. The Ruve Nappe is a 60 km long regional north-south trending fault zone that has thrust marbles of the Matombo Group over granulites of the Langanwangule Group. Most artisanal gold mining activity in the area is coincident with the basal thrust fault of this nappe along its length, workings being located within the rivers and river terraces that drain the structure. Some hard rock mining is also present within the Ruvu Nappe area, most significantly at the Udovelo Mine, which occurs 8 km to the north of PL 5625/09 (the Company’s original licence in the project area). Local reports suggest mining is being carried out to a depth of 50 to 80 metres of 5-10 cm quartz veins and grades reputed to be up to 280 g/t.
Recent research by workers at the University of Western Australia and the University of Dar es Salaam has indicated that that the geology in this part of eastern Tanzania may be an extension of the highly gold endowed Sukumaland Superterrain, host to the Lake Victoria Goldfield to the north-west. Should this be correct,this strongly establishes the prospectivity of the Morogoro project for the discovery of structurally controlled mesothermal metamorphosed Archaean and Proterozoic age gold mineralisation and the Company will primarily target this style of mineralisation in its field exploration programmes. Additionally, within and adjacent to some of the Morogoro licence blocks, published geological and mineral maps show occurrences of base metals (e.g. copper) and one rare earth element occurrence which will also be investigated by the Company.
The Morogoro project presents the Company with an interest in a large mineral licence portfolio in a relatively unexplored and geologically poorly understood region that is receiving increasing company interest in Tanzania as a result of recent gold discoveries and new geological research. This point to a newly emerging gold field where the Company anticipates significant new gold discoveries will be made in the years ahead.
Planned Exploration Programme 2011
As the Morogoro project is an early stage project with limited or no exploration over the mineral licences, the Company will carry out extensive reconnaissance early stage exploration surveys during 2011 comprising geological mapping and, stream, soil and rock sampling. These field activities will be supported by processing and interpretation of regional geophysical survey data (particularly aeomagnetic data), aerial photo & satellite interpretation and analyses of other remote sensing data where available .Those licence tenements where previous regional stream and soil sampling surveys by Morogoro Gold has identified gold anomalous areas will be prioritised for follow-up detailed survey with the objective of defining drill targets in the short term.