SEIGA – Gold
(50% Gippsland)
Location
The prospect is situated on the eastern side of Wadi Seiga at Latitude 22°32'58" N and Longitude 34o 07'44" E some 5.5km east of the Um Shashoba deposit.
Historical mining
The deposit was mined by the ancients. There are an extremely large number of old stone houses located adjacent to and in the vicinity of the mine which may indicate that Seiga was a regional mining centre. The age of the earliest mining is uncertain but was probably by the ancient Egyptians. Small heaps of tailings occur scattered in numerous places among the old stone buildings and many grinding stones can be found in their vicinity.
Further mining took place during the reign of Ahmed Ibn Tulun (868-883AD) and later during the early part of the 1900s.
Geological setting
The workings are located on a southeast trending ridge composed of ferruginous sericite schists, which have been intruded by a thick massive vein of milky white to yellowish quartz ranging up to several meters in width.
Mineralisation
There are three large quartz veins, one of which was extensively mined by the ancients. Three exploration shafts, two adits and a trench date from the early twentieth century. The sericite schist is buff coloured, weathered, soft, and limonite-stained. The iron staining appears to be partly after pyrite and partly after carbonate. The mineralogy varies from carbonate-chlorite-quartz-sericite to carbonate-quartz-sericite. Irregular small quartz veinlets occur in the schist but most appear to have been mined out by the ancients.
Exploration
Following extensive trenching and a limited amount of RC drilling undertaken, Gippsland delineated a shear system having a total length of 2,890m. Within this shear, exploration to date has highlighted a mineralised zone some 1,200m long which in places reaches a width of 80 metres.
A preliminary resource estimation was completed by the Company’s geologists for a 525m strike length of the Seiga main zone incorporating the results of 25 RC drill holes.
The inferred resources total 1.1Mt at 2.3g/t Au (uncut) and 2.0g/t Au (10g/t Au cut) to a maximum depth of 150m and a global SG of 2.5 at a 0.5g/t Au cut-off. The estimation method was by ore block modelling constrained within a wireframe model interpreted from drilling along ten sections.
Seiga Main Zone – Inferred Resources
| Cut-off (g/t) |
Tonnes (Mt) |
Au-uncutt (g/t) |
Au-10g/t cut |
Au (oz) |
| 1.0 |
0.8 |
3.0 |
2.5 |
76,000 |
| 0.7 |
1.1 |
2.3 |
2.0 |
85,000 |
| 0.5 |
1.5 |
1.7 |
1.6 |
93,000 |
| 0.4 |
1.9 |
1.6 |
1.4 |
98,000 |
Figures in table may not tally due to rounding
The area included in the resource estimation comprises only a small part of the mineralised shear system. As drilling progresses, additional resources are expected to be defined below the current resources and also in close proximity to the Seiga main zone, along the Seiga south zone and in the two eastern zones. Drilling within the Seiga south zone mineralisation located to the southeast which is at least 800m long and contains some previously reported intersections that include 28m at 1.14g/t Au in CRC040, 22m at 1.74g/t Au in CRC041 and 12m at 1.18g/t Au in CRC069.
A further two mineralised zones have been identified by rock-chip sampling and limited drilling located to the east.
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