Karaağac, located within the Murat Dagi licence block of western Turkey, is one of a number of prospects identified within a licence block covering an area of 121 km² situated 30 km north-east of the town of Usak and 300 km west-south-west of Ankara.
Having defined an inferred mineral resource of 156,798 oz Au, the Company are currently evaluating how to proceed with the project and are considering further work to extend the resource and/or a joint venture.
Geology
Within this hilly terrain, a gently undulating blanket-like thrust (fault) zone and underlying altered limestone unit extends over an area of approximately 3.5 km².The licence block itself covers a thrust-faulted sequence of limestones and schists that have been intruded by, and now partly overlain by, volcanic rocks of Miocene age.
Exploration
Following detailed geological mapping, systematic chip sampling of the outcropping thrust zone and altered limestone yielded numerous values in excess of 0.5 g/t gold and high values of 2 m @ 9.71 g/t gold and 1 m @ 6.92 g/t gold along approximately 7 km of the exposed thrust contact.b
An subsequent RC drill programme in 2007 has defined an inferred resource of 156,798 oz Au.
History
Elsewhere in the Murat Dagi licence block, two licences to the north (not containing any gold resource) have now been transferred to Kucuk-Kral_Antimon Kursun Maden, a private Turkish mining company focused on the production of antimony, in return for a 2.5 % Net Smelter Return royalty on all future mineral production from the licences. The 2.5 % Net Smelter Return royalty will be split, with Stratex receiving 1% of the royalty and the other 1.5 % will be payable to Teck Cominco Madencilik, from whom Stratex originally acquired the Murat Dagi licence package. Stratex has concluded that the gold potential of the two licences is very low and they will now be evaluated by Kucuk with a view to mining the known antimony mineralization.
