Lake Victoria Mining Company

The Singida-Londoni Gold Project (NI 43-101) Technical Report.  (PDF)-27.85MB

The Singida Gold Project comprises a collection of 43 artisanal Private Mining Licences (PML).

Each PML varies in size from 2.5 ha to 10 ha. The total area currently under ownership is 356.32ha.

Table 1.Details of the Singida Prospecting licence.

Figure 1.Location map of the Singida Project area, showing the boundary
encompassing all PML in direct and indirect ownership by the Company.

click on image to enlarge

The Singida Gold Project is located in central Tanzania about 600 kilometers south of Mwanza and approximately 90 kilometers south-southeast of the Regional government and commercial town center of Singida. (Figure 1). Access from Singida is via the main Mwanza to Dodoma paved road for a distance of 40km before turning off at the village of Ikungi where an all weather gravel road heads eastwards for 70 kilometres to the village of Londoni which is proximal to the project area.

The project area is hilly, covered with reddish iron rich soils, thorn bushes, grasses and small trees. Some small family farms are present and corn is the main crop. The climate in the area is tropically humid with two distinct seasons; a rainy season from November to May and a dry season from June to October. Day time temperatures in the dry season vary from 22-32ºC. The region can experience strong winds. Rock outcrops occur on the hills, whereas the plains to the north of the project area, are largely covered in red soils.

The area became of interest when gold was discovered by a local farmer in 2004 which led to a gold rush of artisanal miners and the pegging of PMLs . By 2009, more than 200 vertical mine shafts had been opened up along a narrow zone of shearing and gold mineralisation that extended along strike for at least 5 km. Previous to this, little work had been done in the area although it was included within the countrywide airborne magnetic and radiometric survey undertaken by Geosurvey International between 1976 and 1979.

The Singida project is located within the central to eastern part of the East African Archean craton. The craton consists largely of granites and related belts of volcanic and sedimentary greenstone rocks. It is bordered on the west by a younger Proterozoic age Ubendian mobile belt of metasedimentary rocks and to the east by the Neoproterozoic Mozambique mobile belt consisting of high grade metamporphic rocks including marbles, genisses, granulites and schists.
It is within these greenstone belts that all the major gold mines of Tanzania are located.

The regional geology of the Singida area consists of Archean age porphyroblastic biotite granites and greenstone rocks characterized by mafic volcanics, subordinate felsic volcanics, clastic sediments and Banded Iron Formations. These rocks have experienced multiple periods of deformation.

The mafic volcanic rocks, comprising of gabbro, diorite, felsite and basalt, have been subjected to varying degrees of shearing along a NW-SE direction within the project area. Which in turn has been later cross-cut by northeast to southwest trending mafic and often magnetite-rich dykes.
Quartz veins, varying from a few centimetres wide upto 1metre, occur within zones of more intense shearing and are often boudinaged, exhibiting typical "pinch and swell" structures. These have formed discrete "pods" or "boudins" of gold mineralisation along the length of the shear zone and in the project area have been the sites in which artisanal mining has been focused. These quartz veins, dipping subvertically, are often host to gold mineralisation whereas the associated wall rocks often contain varying amounts of arsenopyrite, pyrite and magnetite. Gold is closely associated with arsenopyrite. Alteration and gangue minerals include hematite, silica, goethite, sericite, chlorite and limonite.

During June 2010, a soil sampling survey was completed across the Singida-Londoni license area in which 534 samples, including 28 quality control blank samples, were collected and submitted to the SGS Laboratory, Mwanza for gold and arsenic determination by Aqua Regia. Samples were collected on 400 meter spaced north-south grid lines at intervals of 50 meters and at a depth of 30 centimeters. Additional detailed mapping of the geology and locations of the artisanal workings was also carried out on a scale of 1:2000.

The soil sample results, besides indicating areas of known artisanal mining, have formed broad, gold-in-soil anomalies. These gold anomalies occur over the areas from which previous electrically induced polarization (IP) geophysical profiling had identified a number of underground resistive bodies, believed to represent gold-bearing quartz veins beneath the surface.  Five gold targets were developed, and are referred to as Sambaru 1 to 5, that seem to have surface strike lengths varying between 200 to 600 meters. In addition to assaying for gold, all of the soil samples were tested for arsenic. Arsenic in soil samples can often be a "pathfinder" element for gold when gold itself is not measurably present at surface. In addition to identifying the five targets, the compiled assay results also defined a large arsenic anomaly that is located within the central to northwestern part of the license area and encompasses the Sambaru 4 target, decreasing in intensity towards Sambaru 5 in the northwest corner of the license. Noteworthy is that four IP profile lines, undertaken across the recently identified arsenic anomaly, indicated at least 8 sub-surface, resistive bodies, thought to be gold-bearing quartz veins, across a surface width of 350 meters.

Mapping of the location of the artisanal shafts within these target areas suggests that mining was undertaken on a number of narrow sub-outcropping gold veins across a surface width of up to 50 meters. However, IP geophysical profiling suggests that these veins may extend further to the northeast beneath the surface cover.

Detailed mapping of the regolith, topography and soils formed an integral part of the program in order to understand the value of the soil results.

In August, 2010 we commenced a reverse circulation drill program, amounting to 6420 meters across the five Sambaru targetsat the Singida-Londoni gold project that was completed in late October 2010. Sampling of the drill samples was monitored and supervised by the on site Qualified Person* according to best practices acceptable by industry standards. A total of 3040 samples, including 448 quality control samples comprised of Blanks, Commercial Standards and duplicates. Analytical work was carried out at the independent SGS Laboratories in Mwanza, Tanzania. The drill samples were subject to full sample preparation followed by a 50 gram fire assay with an AA finish. Blanks (5%), commercial standards (5%) and duplicates (5%) were used in each sample batch of 20 samples to monitor laboratory performance during the analysis.By November, 2010 results had been received. 

Samples that returned grades >5g/t Au were re-assayed by gravimetric analysis in order to compare results and determine whether this would be a more accurate measure of assaying samples that contained abundant visible and nugget gold. Sample duplicates were used for the analysis since insufficient pulps from the original prepared samples were available. Results of both analyses together with the visual pan results are given in Table 8.

Table 8: Comparative study between Fire Assay and Gravimetric analysis for samples that assay > 5g/t gold

Results indicate that, other than the 2 samples shown highlighted in Table 2 that were completely out of line, the two data sets are very similar. This discrepancy may have been result of mistakenly switching the sample numbers around before the samples were re-submitted.

In comparing these two assay sets, once the two outlier values had been removed, it appears that the gravimetric results for the lower end values of between 5 g/t to 10 g/t gold tend to be slightly higher (5.6%) than the corresponding results from the Fire assay  values. However, in the higher values >.10g/t gold the reverse seems to the case with gravimetric results being 8% lower on average.

Although the data set is small, both sets of data average out and correlate well. (correlation co-efficient of 0.98).                      

Figure 1: Distribution of all assay values (excluding QA-QC) samples at the Singida-Londoni gold project

*  This data set includes all 1 meter and 4 meter composite samples.

Composite sampling across barren intercepts, devoid of sulphide or gold mineralisation, was done to save costs on assaying as well as to reduce the number of samples having to be transported to the Laboratory. Any 4-meter composite sample that returned a gold grade of >1 ppm gold was re-sampled on 1-meter intervals. The 1-meter sample rejects stored at the camp were retrieved and the sample split using the Gilson splitter to a 1kilogram sample. This sample was then submitted to the lab for analysis. The results replaced the 4-meter composite sample in the database.

Drilling targeted the areas beneath 5 artisanal mining sites. Mineralisation is confined to narrow and discrete, vertical to sub-vertical shear zones with little wall rock alteration, other than magnetite being noted from the pan.  Magnetite is often present in the wall rocks decreasing in abundance within zones of arsenopyrite mineralisation.  The distribution of assay values is shown in Figure 1. The majority (94%) of all assay results returned values of <0.5ppm gold.  Only results >0.5ppm have been reported in the Assay summary table (Table 9).

Sample Collection:Samples were collected every meter. Each sample was homogenised as well as reduced in size by passing the sample through a 3-way splitter.  The smaller fraction was further split using a Gilson splitter to a 1.250-kilogram size sample. The reject was sealed and packed into rice sacks for storage at the field camp. Contamination at both splitters was reduced by brushing or blowing compressed air after each sample run. Composite samples were prepared based on the results of the panned sample at site. Where no visible arsenopyrite or gold was noted in the pan, a 4-meter sample interval was composited by equal weight. A 250-gram representative sample was collected and weighed from each 1-meter sample by using a plastic scoop. This procedure was done for each 1-meter consecutive sample across a 4-meter interval in order to obtain a 1-kilogram representative sample, which was then submitted for analysis.  Where visible sulphides, gold or zones of intense oxidation and increased silicification are present, the sample interval remained at 1 meter.

Each hole drilled was sampled from the collar to the end of the hole. However, where the upper 2 meters consisted of rock waste from the artisanal mining, no sample was collected for analysis.

Table 9: Summary of intersections at five Sambaru Prospects, Singida-Londoni gold project

Notes:

*34.286 grams of gold/metric tonne = 1 Troy ounce of gold/short ton;

* g/t = grams/metric ton; Au is the chemical symbol for gold.

* The mineralized interval represents the drill hole intercept and is not the true horizontal width of the mineralized structure.

* Qualified Person: CHM King, registered with the South African Council of Natural Scientific Professions (Pr.Sci.Nat Reg. No. 400065/09) has over 30 years’ experience in base and precious metal exploration.

For complete December 2010 drill sections please see this document. (pdf)-1.14MB.

Sambaru 1

Results from Sambaru 1, located on the Singida Plains in the southeastern corner of the License, indicate that the main gold mineralization occurs as a single narrow quartz vein which has been targeted by the small scale miners. The best grade (7.43g/t gold over 1 meter) is associated with disseminated arsenopyrite within a massive porphyritic diorite which is intersected in the central part of the small scale mine workings. Although the vein appears to pinch out towards the east, drilling along the western fence indicates that it may continue out under the soil cover of the Singida Plain.

Sambaru 2

Results indicate that the main zone of gold mineralization occurs along Section 2020W, in the central part of the Sambaru 2 prospect. The gold mineralization is present within three vertical lenses in which significant amounts of arsenopyrite together with visible gold was reported from on site panning. Intercepts of 10 to 11 meters have returned gold grades of 3.60 g/t and 1.30 g/t gold across the two main lenses, whereas the third lens, located some 30 meters to the northeast intersected 6.81g/t gold over 8 meters. This lens, possibly representing a shallow sub-vertical mineralized zone, was not encountered in the borehole drilled 40 meters beneath the intercept.

The two main lenses have been intersected 80 meters to the southeast on Section 1940W at a depth of 60-80 meters below the surface. Grades of 3.09 g/t and 1.1g/t gold over 8 meters and 3 meters respectively are reported. The spatial position of these intercepts relative to the intersections encountered on Section 2020W suggests that the lenses plunge to the southwest.

Northwest of Section 2020W, the two main gold lenses appear to pinch out and only re-appear again 160 meters further to the northwest on Section 2180W where they narrow to 4 meter wide intercepts having gold grades of 2.97 g/t and 1.86 g/t.

Overall, the mineral lenses occur across a strike length of some 250 meters and although they appear to narrow, they are open to the northwest. However, drilling on 80 meter spaced sections to the southeast failed to encounter any significant mineralization beneath the 300 meter strike length of the 2 zones of small scale workings.  This area was reported to consist of a number of discrete and oxidized shear zones and although mineralization was expected, the assay results reflect low gold values.

Sambaru 3

At Sambaru 3, at least four mineralized zones have been intercepted on one drill fence. These four zones have been partly traced to the corresponding drill fences over a strike length of about 160 meters. The two infill boreholes, drilled on either side of Section 2500W at the Sambaru 3 prospect area, returned corresponding gold grades to the observed panned samples. The  borehole, collared 40 meters to the west of Section 2500W and drilled at an inclination of -50^oto the southeast, intersected 2.71 g/t gold over 14 meters in the upper part of the hole. The 2^ndborehole, collared east of Section 2500W, aimed at testing the interpolated south-westerly plunge of the mineral lens returned a number of 2 meter wide intercepts at a down-hole depth of 60 to 80 meters suggesting the possibility of a south-westerly plunging mineral shoot. Further drilling is required to explore the down-dip extension of this mineral zone.

Sambaru 4

At Sambaru 4, drill results from immediately west of the active artisanal mine area indicate that the main 2 to 4 meter wide artisanal mining zone averaging 2.41g/t Au has now been traced for some 120 meters along strike. This main zone appears to also be present along strike to the northwest at a distance of about 620 meters within the central part of Sambaru 4.  Drilling has also traced two additional mineralized zones along a strike distance of about 160 meters.  The best intersection of  37.30g/t Au over 1 meter was within in a 4 meter wide, massive arsenopyrite gold-bearing sulphide zone that averaged 13.91 g/t Au within the central Sambaru 4 target area.

A drill fence of 4 Reverse Circulation boreholes, totaling 398 meters were drilled along Section 3520W to investigate the IP “resistivity” anomalies as reflected from the Schlumberger VES profile.

These “resistive bodies” appear to be related to lithological differences encountered in the boreholes in which zones of silicified basalt and increase magnetite alteration mainly within the diorite unit appear to have acted as the “resistive units” within the meta-volcanic rock package.

Sambaru 5

At Sambaru 5, in the northwestern part of the license area, one borehole averaged 16.80 g/t Au over 2 meters within a narrow zone of arsenopyrite. The mineralized intercepts in Sambaru 3, 4 and 5 occur less than 70 meters below the surface.

This successfully concludes the first phase of drilling on the Singida-Londoni gold project. Mineralized intercepts were encountered at all 5 targets.

Based on the results from drilling, magnetite was found to be a prominent mineral present in the wall rocks to zones of increased arsenopyrite and gold mineralisation. Earlier, a detailed ground magnetometer survey, across the license area, clearly delineated narrow zones of limited strike length of intense magnetisation parallel to the regional north-west to south-east trending shear fabric of the Singida shear “corridor”. The main artisanal workings lie contiguous to the south-western magnetic trend. Detailed soil sampling on 50 meter spaced north-south traverses, at a sample interval of 25 meters was undertaken across 17 magnetic targets in the shear “corridor”. A total of 588 samples,including 39 Blanks, were submitted for gold and arsenic analysis by Aqua Regia to SGS Laboratory Mwanza.

Results of the detailed soil sampling indicate that all of the grids, other that the grid across the Sambaru 4 area, returned low values.

Drilling has demonstrated that continuity of these mineralised and structural zones between sections as well as between surface and borehole intercepts is reasonably good considering that the drill fence spacing is at 80 meters. Grades, however, may vary significantly depending upon the intensity of arsenopyrite mineralisation in each of the intercepts. Infill drilling on 40 meter and possibly 20 meter spaced sections is planned to evaluate theknown mineralized zones at Sambaru 2, 3, 4 and 5 with the intention of developing an indicated/measured ore resource   during 2011.  Reverse Circulation drilling, totaling approximately 8000 meters, will commence first, the results of which will be used to optimize a follow-up diamond drill program planned latter on in the year.  Additional exploration targets include:

• Detailed soil sampling between Sambaru 3 and Sambaru 4 on 100 meter spaced N-S grid lines at a sample interval of 25 meters.
• Exploration drilling, totaling some 1500 meters to investigate  a 600 meter x 120 meter  soil anomaly  east of Sambaru 4.

The Company commenced Phase 2 Reverse Circulation drilling program in March 2011, centered at the Samabaru 2,3,4 and 5 Prospects (Table 10). Drilling has recently been completed in which 92 boreholes, totalling 9,023 meters have been drilled.  

Table 10: Summary of Reverse Circulation drilling undertaken at the Singida-Londoni Gold project

The two exploration targets were investigated by drilling. The 2^nd zone of mineralisation located some 180 meters south of the main mineralised zone at Sambaru 5 was intersected and was found to be narrow and of low grade running  1.04 g/t gold over 1 meter.  Similarly, the +100 ppb gold soil anomaly located mid-way between Sambaru 3 and 4 returned anomalous results with only one narrow intersection of 1.57 g/t gold over 1 meter being encountered. No follow-up drilling was undertaken on either of the two targets.

Results of the drilling program are summarised in Table 7.

Table 7:Summary of Reverse Circulation Drill Results from Sambaru 2, 3, 4 and 5

Sambaru 5

Drilling has intercepted the narrow and steeply-dipping, arsenopyrite-rich gold zone across a strike length of some 160 meters. Besides the high grade intersection of 16.80 g/t gold over 2 meters reported from Section 4640W during the Phase 1 drilling program, most of the intercepts returned low gold values of between 0.5 to 1 g/t gold over 1 or 2 meter intervals with grade appearing to decrease with depth.

Sambaru 4

The main body of mineralization, having a grade of 3.45 g/t gold over a true thickness of 11 meters and centered over an area of extensive artisanal mining, was traced to a depth of 80 meters before pinching out. The zone, narrowing rapidly out along strike and decreasing in grade, has been traced for 320 meters. Drilling indicated a decrease in grade and width of the mineral zone at depth.

A subsidiary, narrow mineralized lens, located 50 meters to the north-east of the main lens was traced along a strike for 80 meters. Anomalous grades defined the zone further to the northwest.

Sambaru 3

Sambaru 3 is the 2^nd largest of all 5 artisanal sites, comprising of at least 4 parallel but narrow mineralized zones that have been traced continually across a strike length of 280 meters. The main pod of mineralization, averaging 1.93 g/t gold and having a maximum width of 25 meters, pinches out at 110 meters in depth. It has a surface strike extend of approximately 40 meters.

The mineral lenses dip sub-vertically to the northeast. Drilling has indicated that a number of lenses appear to extend beyond 110 meters depth and are open along strike both to the northwest and southeast.

Sambaru 2

Sambaru 2 is the largest of the 5 prospects within the Singida-Londoni Project. Although artisanal workings extend along a strike length of 580 meters, drilling has defined gold mineralization to occur within a length of about 320 meters of strike length. Four, parallel and vertically to sub-vertically dipping gold lenses, were intersected to depths of 130 meters although in places the lenses do appear either to pinch out or decrease in grade.

The lenses tend to occur as  narrow semi-discontinuous veins “pinching and swelling” along  the horizontal and vertical distances, grades typically vary between 3.5g/t to  less than 0.5g/t gold. 

An evaluation of the drill results for both Phase 1 and 2 programs has shown that gold mineralization at the Singida-Londoni project consists of narrow medium to low grade and often discontinuous lenses. The shear structures hosting the gold-rich zones typically “pinch and swell” along strike, which in places, has resulted in larger pods of limited size as at Sambaru 3 and Sambaru 4 which indicates that the gold deposits have limited potential to be developed into a major ore resource contrary to the Company’s vision of discovering substantially larger and economically viable gold deposits in the short term. In this regard, the Company believes that the nature and extent of the mineralization revealed thus far may lend itself rather towards a small-scale commercial mining operation, a joint venture or a possible sale.The Company will therefore endeavor to utilize through Joint Venture or sale the Singida assets to assist in funding its other projects.

The Company has reduced the number of PMLs that were under option from 37 to 20 PMLs and together with the remaining 23 PMLs, the mineral rights of which are owned exclusively (100%) by the Company, encompass the Sambaru 2, 3 and 4 Prospects.