Apollo Minerals hits bonanza gold grades at Gabon mine closed since the 1950s

Apollo Minerals (ASX: AON) has struck visible gold assaying up to 429 grams per tonne at a long closed mine in the West African nation of Gabon.

The company’s Salane project is one of two projects the company owns in Gabon, the other being the Kroussou zinc-lead deposit.

Two mineralised areas at the gold project have been confirmed, the Salane fault and P6 prospect.

The project is located 16km from the major town of Lambarene, and less than 2km from the sealed N1 highway.

Gold found near historical trenching

Historical mapping from the 1950s identified “numerous” gold occurrences, one being the A1 prospect, which lies within the 1.5km-long Salane fault.

The company reports that visible gold in quartz veining returned grades of 429g/t and 125g/t.

This gold was discovered beside historical trenching.

Rock chip samples, also from the area adjacent to the trenching, returned 306g/t, 111g/t, 59g/t, and up to 247g/t gold in quartz veining.

At the P6 prospect, sampling produced an assay of 53g/t in outcropping quartz.

Historic mining at 13g/t grade

The historic mine operated in the 1950s when Gabon was part of the French Empire.

The country gained its independence in 1960.

Records show the mine produced 20,000 ounces at 12g/t gold.

Historical reports state that 5,000oz at 13g/t of that total was produced from mining of outcropping quartz vein down to the water level; with the remainder from alluvial workings, Apollo notes.

Potential for ‘significant’ discovery

Managing director Neil Inwood said that since the mid-1950s there has not been any modern exploration or drilling at Salane.

“With alluvial workings extending 5km to the north and our own soil anomalies extending 1.2km to the south, and open, we believe that Salane may have the scale and gold grades for a significant gold discovery,” he added.

Late last month Apollo added a third project to its priority list, the Belgrade copper deposit in Serbia.

Historic rock chip sampling at Belgrade produced assays up to 20% copper and 1,540 parts per million silver.

The company is about to begin field work there.