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Gold Exploration on eight concessions in Burkina Faso, West Africa Summary by Wolfgang Hampel (2001)

To discover an oxidised, open pittable gold resource of at least 1 mio. ounces with a minimum GT-values of 100. The minimum target was later increased to 2 mio. ounces

Emerging Africa Gold Inc. held eight exploration licences (JV's with Burkinabè nationals) with a total surface of more than 4,000 sqkm in total. All concessions except one (Piéla-Massako) were pure grass-roots permits with little geological information available. Artisanal gold mining ('orpaillage') took place on six of the eight permits. The staff under my supervision included 2 expat geologists, 1 expat geological technician, 3 Burkinabè geologists and a local work force of 60-80 people

The permits were selected in early 1996 by Geologica Inc, Val d'Or according to a) the number and size of orpailleur workings, b) the total surface underlain by Birimian greenstones and c) their availability. Parallel to the compilation report for each permit, a geological/structural interpretation of the Landsat Images was carried out. Fieldwork started with the installation of small field camps where necessary and the evaluation of the orpailleur sites (channel/outcrop sampling, trenching). Based on these results, structural interpretations and field observations regional and local soil/lag/termite mound geochemistry surveys were carried out. In the case of the Piéla-Massako Permit, this lead to the identification of a number of drill and ground geophysics targets of which 3 were successfully RC drilled (see Project Presentation n° 97B ).

For every permit comprehensive final reports were produced between July and October 1997. The two permits (Piéla-Massako and Dama) returned the most promising results. On both permits small-scale gold mining is successfully done by the license holders since 1997. Due to financial difficulties, EAG relinquished all permits in October 1997 to the permit holders. The Piéla concession is currently jointly held by Massako SARL and Sanu Resources, Los Angeles, USA. Ashanti Gold optioned for the permit in 2000, did a regional soil geochemistry survey until March 2001 and withdrew recently as they cut their exploration budgets.