The Konya Project is located in the Erenler Dağı (Erenler Mountains) 245 km south of Ankara and 35 km west-south-west of the city of Konya. The Erenler Daği, also known as the Konya Volcanic Belt, comprises a sequence of volcanic and intrusive rocks extending over an area of 60km x 40km volcanic belt and hosts Stratex’s Inlice and Doğanbey projects. Stratex has a total of 31 licences covering an area of 37,480 hectares over the volcanic belt. In addition to Inlice and Doğanbey, the Company, together with partner Teck Cominco Arama ve Madencilik San.Tic.A.S. (TCAM), is busy generating targets within the wider belt, which has been confirmed to host a number of areas of intense hydrothermal alteration known as “lithocaps”.
Independent Consultant Richard Sillitoe has compared the Miocene-age (4-10 Ma) Konya Belt to the Maricunga district in Chile, which had no known gold mineralization prior to 1980. However, as a result of subsequent exploration, it is now known to host reserves and resources in excess of 40 million oz gold. TCAM has agreed to fast-track exploration in the Belt in conjunction with Stratex. TCAM has committed to spend US$1 million in year 1 (to 30 June 2008), inclusive of an airborne magnetic survey and the completion of at least 1,000 metres of diamond drilling at the Doğanbey porphyry gold prospect. Thereafter they retain an option to spend $2 million in the subsequent two years, to earn 51% of the Konya project excluding Inlice.
Regional Geology
The Konya Volcanic Belt is positioned geographically and geologically between the Tauride and Anatolide units, and was erupted in response to the northward subduction of the African Plate beneath Anatolia along the Cyprean Arc from Jurassic to Miocene times (208- 5.33Ma).
Eruption of the Konya volcanics was controlled by extensional faulting along the major arc-parallel Aksehir Fault. Half-graben faulting, observed north-east and south-east of Inlice, is thought to be related to the Aksehir Fault and is the bounding feature to the Konya volcanics. The Ana mineralized zone at Inlice and other property lineaments are sub-parallel to the Aksehir Fault.
The Konya volcanic rocks are mainly andesites and dacites, belonging to the high-K calc-alkaline series. Significantly, the calc-alkaline to high-K calc-alkaline series rocks, and many of their chemical and isotopic characteristics, are very similar to the young volcanic rocks of the Central Andes that are host to major gold, silver and base metal epithermal deposits.
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Exploration Potential
Ongoing exploration includes stream sediment geochemistry, soil geochemistry, mapping, and outcrop sampling. Stratex and TCAM are evaluating a number of potential targets using these techniques, in combination with Aster imagery and the airborne magnetic survey. The current areas of priority are identified on the accompanying illustration. The exploration programme has already identified four new porphyry-style targets, including Karacaören, with rock samples returning up to 1.27 g/t Au, and Gölcük. Following Doğanbey, the discovery of these zones of porphyry-style gold mineralization, provides strong incentivisation in the Company's search for a major discovery in the Belt. Drilling has commenced at both Karacaören and Gölcük, and results are awaited.
