Tajiri Enters Option for 100% of Advanced Gold Exploration Project in Burkina Faso
Tajiri Enters Option for 100% of Advanced Gold Exploration
Project in Burkina Faso
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - (February 13th, 2018) - Tajiri Resources Corp. (the "Company") (TSXVENTURE:
TAJ) is pleased to announce that, subject to TSX Venture approval, it has entered into an Agreement with
Australian-listed Middle Island Resources Limited (or ‘MDI’), that will see it acquire, through option, an
100% interest in the advanced Reo Gold Project, located in Burkina Faso, West Africa. The Reo Project is
of regional scale, covering 1,002km 2 at the confluence of the prolific Houndé and Boromo greenstone
belts which are hosts to several substantial gold deposits of including: Karma 3.8Moz, Bissa 6.6Moz,
Hounde 4.9Moz and Mana 8.6 Moz (reported inclusive of all P&P reserves and all M,I&I Resources)
1
The Reo Project, which has had approximately USD$8 million spent on exploration since the mid 2000s,
contains two advanced prospects: The Morley Prospect - where shallow Reverse Circulation (RC) and
Aircore drill intercepts include: KRAC011-aircore: [email protected]/t , KRAC128-aircore: [email protected]/t,
KR020-RC: [email protected]/t, KRC022-RC: [email protected]/t, MRRC0005-RC: [email protected]/t, and the K4-K5
Prospect - where RAB, aircore, RC and diamond drill intercepts include MRRB0076-RAB: [email protected]/t,
including 12m@ 4.11g/t, MRRB009-RAB: 8m @ 8.20g/t, MRRB1611-RAB: 8m @ 4.68g/t, MRRB0062-
RAB : [email protected]/t, NAC037-aircore:- [email protected]/t, NAC027-aircore: 18m @ 2.51g/t, MRRC0081-RC:
16m @ 1.95g/t, and 13m @ 2.19g/t, MRRC0091-RC: 10m @ 3.47g/t, MRRC0047-RC: [email protected]/t,
MRDD001-diamond: 3m @ 11.5g/t including 1m @ 23.2g/t and MRDD003-diamond: 2m @ 16.8g/t
including 1m @ 31.9g/t. These mineralised intercepts and all others reported in this press release
including those shown in figures are reported as down hole intervals not true widths, which are yet to
be determined.
1 All Resources noted in paragraph 2 above have not been independently verified by Tajiri and rely on publicly reported and referenced
Resource and Reserve statements of other public listed companies as noted below. The Resources reported in paragraph 2 are totals of
Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resources inclusive of Proven and Probable Reserves.
Karma - Endeavour Mining Corporation MI&I resources, inclusive of P&P Reserves of 3.772 Moz
https://www.endeavourmining.com/our-portfolio/reserves-and-resources/default.aspx . Bissa - Nord Gold - Bissa and Bouly deposits MI&I
resources, inclusive of P&P Reserves of 6.577 Moz
http://www.nordgold.com/upload/iblock/f05/Nordgold%202016%20Mineral%20Resources%20and%20Ore%20Reserves%20Update_1.pdf
Hounde - Endeavour Mining Corporation MI&I resources, inclusive of P&P Reserves of 4.90 Moz
https://www.endeavourmining.com/our-portfolio/reserves-and-resources/default.aspx Mana - Semafo MI&I resources, inclusive of P&P
Reserves of 8.581 Moz http://www.semafo.com/English/operations-and-exploration/reserves-and-resources/default.aspx
Summary commercial terms involve aggregate cash payments to MDI of USD$335,000 and issuance of 5
million Tajiri shares over a period of 21 months. The agreement also includes a 2% net smelter return
royalty in favour of MDI, which may be purchased by Tajiri for USD$5 million.
Tajiri considers the exploration upside at the project to be of the highest order, with immediate
well-defined drill targets at the K4- K5 Prospect to be followed on from past drilling, combined with a
large regional land package that hosts the smaller drilled Morley Prospect and several remaining auger
geochemical targets yet to be tested by drilling.
Information contained in this press release relies on information provided by Middle Island, other public
and unpublished documents which include technical reports from previous explorers and Middle Island.
including all figures which were prepared by Middle Island. Tajiri has used reasonable efforts to review
the technical information but until it conducts further due diligence, as envisaged by the Heads of
Agreement, including site visits and independent data verification it relies on information supplied by
Middle Island. However, it is Tajiri's opinion that historical exploration and assay procedures were
executed to a high standard consistent with industry best practices in effect at the time and that these
practices conform to acceptable standards for further use, albeit subject to inherent risks.
Details of the Agreement
The reader is referred to the release made by Middle Island on 11/2/2018 which is attached to this news
release.
The terms of the agreement are as follows:
1) Pay MDI USD$35,000 to secure a 3 month period of due diligence.
2) Pay MDI USD$150,000 and issue 2.5 Million shares at any time during the due diligence period
to enter into the option representing 4.139 % of the listed shares of Tajiri on a fully diluted basis.
3) Pay to MDI USD$50,000 within 12 months of entering into the option, if the option has not been
exercised.
4) Pay MDI USD$100,000 and issue MDI 2.5 Million* shares of Tajiri within 18 months if the
payment made under 2) above to exercise the option and acquire 100% of the Project.
5) Maintain the REO project licences in good standing during the Option Period and meet
mandated exploration expenditures.
6) MDI will retain a 2% NSR on any future production and Tajiri may acquire the NSR at any time
after the exercise of the option for USD$5 million.
*The stipulated number of shares to be issued to Middle Island in each Tranche are calculated on a fully
diluted basis, based on Tajiri’s current capital structure. The number of shares to be issued to Middle
Island at the time a tranche is issued shall be fixed at, and adjusted accordingly to, 4.139% of the fully
diluted equity of Tajiri. All shares issued to MDI will be subject to any mandatory minimum TSX-V
restriction periods.
Reo Project highlights:
● Large regional 1,002km 2 gold project of 6 contiguous tenements located astride 50km strike of
highly prospective West African greenstone belt geology (Figure 1). Two tenements are granted
and four are subject to extension applications. Importantly the tenement overlying the K4-K5
prospect is in good standing and the second granted tenement, Nebya in the south west of the
project is granted but has not yet been transferred to MDI from the original vendor.
● Project located 150km west-northwest of the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, has good
infrastructure - bitumen road from the capital, process water (15km from the Black Volta), grid
power to the centre of the project and a rail line at Koudougou (35km).
● Burkina Faso is favourable to mining with a sound Mining Act in West Africa and a competitive
fiscal regime. The 2016 Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies ranks Burkina Faso
as third most attractive mining jurisdiction in West Africa in both its Policy Perception Index
survey and Investment Attractiveness Index and fourth in all of Africa
● USD$8 million prudently expended since mid-2000s by both Newmont Mining's subsidiary
Newmont Ventures and Middle Island, with past work including 70,666m of geochemical auger
drilling in 9,543 holes, 67,148m of RAB drilling in 1,918 holes, 22,150m of aircore drilling in 439
holes, 12,791m of RC drilling in 146 holes and 1,649m of diamond drilling in 11 holes. In
addition, a high resolution 100m line spaced airborne magnetic and radiometric survey covers
the entire Project along with 128km 2 coverage by ground magnetic surveys 8km 2 of IP/Resistivity
surveys.
● The Project hosts numerous untested auger geochemical targets and the smaller, drilled Morley
Prospect (see Figure 2).
● The Project hosts the substantial and advanced K4-K5 prospect where a gold in auger anomaly
with a strike of 4.5km and width of 3km has returned robust grade drill intersections from
multiple targets (further detailed below).
● Excellent local community relations have been established by MDI. Since it began work at Reo
MDI has sponsored a water supply project that now supplies potable water to some 1,000
residents and a market gardening project.
Figure 1: Project location and Simplified Geology - NB the most NE tenement, Bissou, has been relinquished by MDI and no
longer forms part of the Project
Geological Summary
The geology of the Project is dominantly covered by transposed to transported ferruginous laterites,
interspersed with minor outcrops of granite and granitic gneiss. Outcrop over the volcanic and
meta-sedimentary units is extremely limited. Thus, regional geological information on the Project largely
relies on interpretation of a high resolution (100m line spacing) aeromagnetic and radiometric survey
conducted by Middle Island in 2011.
The project area is interpreted to comprise volcanic, sedimentary and felsic intrusive rocks of the
Boromo and Houndé greenstone belts that come close to intersecting, and are in thrust contact with the
major central Burkina granitoid massif to the east.
Known gold mineralisation styles are largely hosted within greenstone belts and at granitoid contacts,
and are of orogenic style (quartz vein and shear zone related).
Figure 2: Showing project geology interpreted from aeromagnetic survey.
Regional Exploration
In addition to several phases of stream sediment, lag and soil geochemistry, the Project was subject to
extensive auger drilling by MDI between 2011-2012. This work was completed on grids ranging from
1,600 x 200m, down to a 400 x 100m pattern, which defined four main prospects- K4-K5, Morley
(formerly Didyr), Dassa and East Prospect. Of these, the most significant prospects are K4-K5 and
Morley, which were both identified and subject to scout drilling by Newmont.
Follow-up RAB/Aircore drilling on mostly 400m spaced lines (25m -100m spaced holes) at the other
auger geochemical targets (Dassa and East targets) produced limited intersections above 1g/t Au. A
series of Auger geochemical anomalies stretching SW from the Dassa target have not yet been tested by
any form of drilling (see Figure 3).
The Morley Prospect
The Morley prospect was a blind discovery by Newmont identified via drainage sampling and
subsequent lag and soil geochemistry. This was followed with an initial 120 hole aircore drilling program,
producing an exceptional intercept of 34m at 16.48g/t Au from 3m depth (KRAC011) and follow up
drilling (83 holes) produced 39m @ 2.62g/t Au from 5m (KRAC 128), drilled in alternate directions
toward the NW and SE. Better intercepts were derived from holes oriented toward 345 degrees.
2
Newmont then drilled six diamond core holes behind significant aircore intercepts (-55 ⁰ to -65 ⁰ towards
345 ⁰ ). These holes were generally disappointing and did not intercept targeted mineralisation.
Subsequently Newmont completed trenching, RAB (66 holes) and a final RC program (37 holes). Selected
significant intercepts from RC included 38m @ 2.33g/t Au from 3m depth (KRC020), 10m @ 7.55g/t Au
from 16m (KRC022) and 10m @ 2.32g/t Au from 78m (KRC029bis) (reported as down hole intercepts
not true widths).
3
Figure 3 Regional auger gold geochemistry (Au ppb) over aeromagnetic geophysics. NB Bissou tenement has been relinquished. Major
geochemical targets include K4/K5 (labelled Dassa Sud), Morley, a cluster of higher geochemical results NE of the Dassa label, Dassa the
anomalous geochemistry stretching for 10km to the southwest of the Dassa label which has not been subject to any further exploration, and
East target (cluster of higher geochemical results located to the east of the label Pouni 2).
MDI completed 12 trenches for 550 metres and 58 RC holes for 4,931m at the Morley Prospect. All holes
were drilled at -60 ⁰ toward grid 180 ⁰ . Mineralisation intercepted in Newmont drilling was interpreted to
2 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths
3 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths
dip at approximately 50 ⁰ to the north, with a shallow plunge to the east. MDI drilling was planned to test
down dip and along strike extents of known mineralisation. Drilling intercepted numerous robust
intercepts (Table 1), notably 2m at 18g/t Au including 1m at 32.5g/t Au (MRRC001), 10m at 9.63g/t Au
including 1m at 43g/t Au (MRRC0005), 6m at 2.47g/t Au (MRRC0006), 5m at 4.72g/t Au including 1m at
10.1g/t Au (MRRC0016) and 1m at 75.5g/t Au (MRRC0040)
4
Host rocks at the Morley Prospect are granodiorite with rafts of mafic rocks. MDI RC Drilling confirmed
the interpretation of stacked, east-west trending and moderately north dipping lodes, and delineated
two lodes at Morley approximately 100 metres apart.
Exploration at the Morley Prospect has traced the mineralised structure over 1,000m in an east-west
direction. However, it appears that mineralisation at the peripheries is relatively thin and low grade and
that thicker higher grade zones are confined to a 200-300m zone straddling the granodiorite contact.
Exploration results for the central part of the of the Morley Prospect are shown in Figure 4 below.
It is recognised that Morley represents a smaller, albeit high grade, potential satellite deposit to a more
a substantial resource if identified elsewhere on the property, and that further work will be readily
justified if this proves the case.
Figure 4 : Showing summary Trench and RC drilling results over the central part of the Morley Prospect.
5
4 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths
5 All mineralised intercepts shown as down hole intercepts and not true widths
The K4-K5 Prospect
The K4-5 Prospect, located in the southeast of the tenement package, is the most significant Prospect
located at the Reo project. Although no geology is exposed, as the area is veneered by transported
laterite, an extensive auger geochemical anomaly of 4.5km strike and 3.5km width has been defined,
with numerous values exceeding 100ppb and a peak value of 1,577ppb.
A large artisanal mining pit (c.500m x 250m) exists in the central part of the prospect, where up to 5,000
miners have worked palaeo-alluvial material at the ‘interface’ between laterite and saprolite.
The K4-K5 Prospect was initially defined by soil sampling by Newmont and later Auger geochemical
sampling by Middle Island, and since has been variously assessed by rotary air blast (RAB), aircore,
reverse circulation (RC) and limited diamond core drilling.
The geology comprises a package of meta-sediments and felsic volcanics irregularly on-lapping a
shallowly south-plunging granodiorite. Mineralisation is interpreted to be associated with the Madi
Shear and hosted in all lithologies, but is structurally controlled, with quartz veining and strong shearing
developed around the brittle ductile contacts between the granodiorite and volcano-sedimentary rocks.
Alteration observed is outwardly zoned, variously dominated by silica/pyrite, sericite and chlorite
assemblages, with more distal carbonate alteration.
K4-K5 Exploration Summary
After conducting both lag and soil geochemical sampling, Newmont completed ground geophysics at the
prospect and drilled several aircore fences on a 400m line spacing and a 50m to 100m hole spacing,
completing 193 holes for 10,319m. The best intercept for the program was NAC027 at the K5 Prospect,
which returned 18m at 2.5g/t Au , however numerous other broad lower grade intercepts were
returned.
6
After defining the K4-K5 anomaly by auger geochemistry, Middle Island conducted several phases of
RAB, RC and diamond drilling, completing 825 holes for 34,953m of RAB drilling, 26 holes for 2,627m of
RC drilling and 5 diamond drill holes for 724m.
Shallow RAB drilling (sampled as 4m composites), performed predominantly on 400m spaced lines to
better investigate anomalous auger geochemistry, succeeded in defining a broad, 2.5km long, open
ended zone of continuous gold mineralisation lying along the southeast margin of the K4/K5
geochemical anomaly, coincident with the Madi Shear.
Better 4m RAB composite sample intercepts included 13m at 2.47g/t Au. 44m at 1.48g/t (including 12m
at 4.11g/t ) , 16m at 1.95g/t, 13m at 2.19g/t and 10m at 3.47g/t Au ., 12m at 4.99g/t (including 4m at
14.0g/t ) and 8m at 8.20g/t (including 4m at 16.2g/t Au ). 36m at 1.25g/t, 16m at 2.66g/t (incl. 12m at
3.23g/t), 20m at 1.65g/t (incl. 8m at 3.17), 8m at 4.68g/t (incl. 4m at 8.21g/t), 8m at 1.70g/t, 4m at
3.54g/t, 4m at 2.25g/t, 6m at 1.24g/t, 18m at 2.51g/t, 44m at 1.48g/t (incl. 12m at 4.11g/t), 12m at
6 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths