Inlice (pronounced In-lee-jer) project is located 30 kilometres west-south-west of the city of Konya and 230 kilometres south of Ankara. The prospect was the first of twenty plus hydrothermal alteration zones recognised by Stratex in the Konya volcanic belt. The Inlice prospect is present in an area where, to the best of the Company's knowledge, no gold mineralization had previously been recognized and little or no exploration had been undertaken. Stratex has now defined a JORC-compliant resource of 262,300 oz gold which is hosted by the Ana Zone, 98,000 oz of which is in oxide material.
History
The mineralization at Inlice was first recognised by Stratex Madencilik General Manager Bahri Yildiz, who noted and sampled a roadside outcrop, the sample returning 1.3 g/t Au. A reconnaissance visit was made by Bahri and Bob Foster to examine the surrounding area in June 2005 and revealed the presence of wide silica bodies forming a number of prominent ridges in the area. As a result, Stratex decided that the prospect had significant potential and that systematic exploration was warranted. The concession was successfully tendered for in August 2005 and the rest, as they say, is history!
Selective chip sampling of outcrops within the eastern part of what is now referred to as the Ana Zone (formerly the "Main Zone") yielded gold values up to 11 g/t, thus confirming the Company's initial assessment. Recognising the potential of the wider volcanic area the Company undertook reconnaissance visits to other sites identified via satellite image studies and within 12 weeks secured a further 17 licences for a total land package of 264.4 km2 covering all key prospects of any significance. Since that time the total area has been expanded to 410 km2 to secure additional low-priority prospects of interest.
Immediately after the acquisition of the Inlice prospect, systematic chip sampling was undertaken across the silica-rich Ana East Zone yielding an average of 19.6 m @ 2.1 g/t gold for the 400 metres long north-western sector. The silica zone is exposed at the surface for a further 500 m towards the south-east and sampling revealed persistently anomalous gold values along much of this length, with elevated silver values (averaging 1.7 to 6.2 g/t silver over the exposed width).
Regional Geology
The Inlice project is hosted by the rocks of Upper Miocene to Pliocene age (12 - 3 million years old) that outcrop in the Erenlerdagi (Dagi = Mountains) - the Erenlerdagi Volcanic Belt. The rocks comprise volcanics (ignimbrites, lava domes, and tuffs and breccias associated with domes) interbedded with sedimentary rocks, predominantly fluvial-lacustrine limestone, marl and shales. The volcanics are mainly andesites and dacites and are classified as high-K calc-alkaline series rocks. Their formation has been related to northward subduction of the African Plate beneath Anatolia along the Cyprean Arc.
Prospect Geology
The immediate host rocks of the gold mineralization at Inlice are relatively massive homogenous andesitic volcanic rocks forming a dome complex. Andesitic tuffs and agglomerates have been recorded in the wider licence area.
The silica ledges of the Ana Zone are interpreted as steeply dipping structural zones cross-cutting the volcanic sequence.
The gold mineralization occurs in steeply dipping structural zones that consist of silica "ledges". These represent replacement lenses within the andesitic host rock and are typical of high-sulphidation epithermal systems that formed from very low-pH (highly acidic) fluids. The replacement silica has pseudomorphed feldspar, biotite and hornblende phenocrysts, whilst the residual silica displays vugs (cavities) representing leached phenocrysts and lithic clasts (rock fragments).
The main silica types are:
- Opal and chalcedony
- Vuggy silica
- Sugary silica
- Massive silica
The mineralized system at Inlice extends over an area of at least 3,500 m by 1,000 m - see Figure 1. The NW and SE ends of the system are covered by alluvium and talus respectively and the system may be larger than currently observed.
Geochemically the gold mineralization has a typical high-sulphidation trace element association of As, Bi, Hg, Sb, Te and Tl.
Preliminary exploration drilling of the Discovery Outcrop and Bati Zone yielded only weakly anomalous gold values whereas drilling of the Merkez Zone indicated the presence of a gold-bearing porphyry-related system, although best gold values at that time only average about 0.05 g/t.
The first drillhole, INDD-13, to test the apparent "gap" defined by the shallow valley between the Ana East and Ana West zones, demonstrated, for the first time, continuity of the silica zone beneath cover. It also returned values of 2.96 g/t gold over 68.4 m, including 7.69 g/t gold over 15.0 m. Although an oblique intersection of the Ana Zone, the hole suggested that the zone is wider and more gold-rich beneath the "gap".
Following exploration drilling of the Ana Zone through to the end of 2006, further exploration was carried out on the extensive areas of alteration identified by low magnetic response - between the Gap and Merkez zones, and south of the Discovery Zone (Fig. 6). To date, silica ledges within these further zones have not proved significantly anomalous in gold. In mid-March 2007, the Company reported its best intersection from a zone of silica-ledge mineralization and mineralized breccia located near the western end of Ana East - 54.60 metres grading 6.22 g/t gold (true width of 42 metres and horizontal width of 45 metres) including 17.10 metres grading 10.88 g/t Au.
Results
The locations of drillholes are shown in Figure 3 with schematic sections illustrating the geometry of the gold mineralization in Figures 4 and 5. The more important drill hole intersections are summarised in Table 1.
Best intersections have been achieved between the drill fence lines INDD-24-30 westwards to INDD-11, with >1 g/t gold values extending further westwards to at least drill hole INDD-16. In-house estimates suggest a high-grade gold-bearing core to the system averaging approximately 7 g/t over a width of approximately 12 m and occurring mostly peripheral to and beneath the shallow valley separating the Ana East and Ana West ridges. This valley ("the Gap") is probably in part related to faulting but current modelling suggests that there is only minor offset or loss of ground due to the fault.
Drillholes INDD-5, 6, 7, and 8 tested the eastern end of the Ana East Zone with a view to investigating the gold content at depth below outcrops of low-gold-grade chalcedonic silica. The zone was intersected but only contained low gold and lacked the vuggy and sugary silica associated with the good gold grades encountered in the other holes.
Table 1: Highlights from drilling so far on the Inlice Main Zone.
Preliminary Metallurgical Testwork
Preliminary bench-scale metallurgical test-work was completed in early 2007 by Wardell Armstrong International on four samples using cyanide leach of finely ground material (<125 microns). The one oxide sample, grading 2.92 g/t Au, gave an excellent recovery of 95% of the contained gold over a 48-hour period. Subsequent bottle roll tests of coarse oxide material (<12 mm) confirmed exceptionally rapid recoveries, with 92.6 % of the gold being recovered within one day, suggesting that the gold would be readily recoverable by heap-leach methods. Recoveries from three finely ground sulphide samples over a 48-hour period ranged from 21% to 28%, with slightly lower recoveries recorded from bottle-roll leaching of coarse material. The Company has commissioned Wardell Armstrong to undertake further test-work to determine the optimum metallurgical process for recovering gold from the sulphide material.
Environmental Baseline Studies
The Company commissioned international resource consultants SRK Consulting Ltd to undertake an environmental baseline study. The study includes soil characterization, surface water quantity and quality, groundwater flow and quality, flora and fauna surveys, and socioeconomic studies. These will from the basis for a more comprehensive Environmental Impact Study when any decision has been made to exploit the deposit.
Further Exploration
Exploration drilling at the Discovery and Bati Zones did not proved particularly encouraging however the Merkez zone is still being drilled. The first drill holes into the Merkez Zone confirmed the presence of a weakly altered porphyry body with drill hole INDD-31 returning 254 m grading 0.05 g/t gold and highest values of 0.128 g/t Au and 0.017 % Mo.
To further investigate the concealed parts of the Inlice licence area on the basis that the best grades and widths of silica mineralization identified to date lie beneath the soil-covered Gap area, the Company commissioned ground-based magnetic and induced polarization geophysical surveys. The resulting data defined an extensive zone of low magnetism (blue in Fig. 6) underlying much of the central part of the licence area and is interpreted to indicate that widespread hydrothermal activity resulted in destruction of magnetite (iron oxide) in the host volcanic rocks. Within this wide area of low magnetism the Merkez Zone is clearly defined as a magnetic-high area, a physical response that is commonly associated with the magnetite-rich parts of porphyry gold systems.
A resource estimate compiled by consultants ACA Howe in April 2007 identified the following:
- Total resource 6,751,595 t @ 1.72 g/t Au = 372,971 oz comprising
- Total indicated resource: 147,094 oz (39.4 %)
- Total inferred resource: 225,877 oz (60.6 %)
This resource includes 10,129 oz Au from hangingwall and footwall parallels and 28,718 oz Au from talus blanketing the south-western slope of the Ana East Zone.
Further exploration drilling was then carried out to target the Merkez Zone, since drilling of the Gap Zone and south of the Discovery Zone failed to identified any further significant mineralization. Following the completion of a further 4,806 metres of drilling, Aca Howe provided the Company with a CPR and revised resource estimate comprising a total gold resource of 262,300 oz, of which 98,300 oz gold is in oxide, which means it is more amenable for future processing. Whilst the overall resource demonstrates a decrease from the original figure of 372,971 oz, due to the narrowing of the projected mineralized zone at depth, the drilling has increased the Measured and Indicated categories to 63 % of total resource. This increases the Board's level of confidence in the production potential of Inlice.
It is the Company's intention to indentify a mining-capable partner to progress the project through scoping studies and feasibility, thus minimising risk and expenditure prior to any production decision.
