Pelangio Exploration (PX | TSX-V): Camp-sized Properties on Ghana’s World Class Gold Belts
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By Dr. Allen M. Alper and Jeff Senior
on 9/15/2011
President and CEO Ingrid Hibbard
Like all junior mining companies, Pelangio Exploration is looking for a walk-off home run, that huge success that’s a win for all involved and is remembered for many years afterward. Unlike many of its peers, Pelangio has already achieved that goal once with the Detour Lake project, which is set to soon become Canada’s largest gold mine.
Camp-sized Properties“At Pelangio, we successfully acquire and explore camp-sized land packages on world class gold belts,” explains President and CEO Ingrid Hibbard. “By ‘camp-sized’, we mean properties that give us many chances to find numerous deposits – something the size of a Timmins or Red Lake camp. That’s an audacious mission statement but we’ve managed to accomplish it three times – the first time at Detour Lake, which we spun off to Detour Gold and is set to become Canada’s largest gold mine, and the second and third with our two properties totaling nearly 400 square kilometers in Ghana, West Africa.”
The Detour Lake deposit, located in northeastern Ontario, holds a 14.9 million ounce gold reserve in a measured and indicated resource that exceeds 20 million ounces. Pelangio acquired the deposit from Placer Dome in 1998 while gold prices were depressed. During 2003-6, as the price of gold started to take off, the original small underground mine was re-envisioned as a large open pit plan that comprised two pits that could be expanded in all directions. A 43-101 compliant resource estimate was produced in 2006 and an extensive drill program raised the profile of the deposit as well as that the company’s share price before the property was spun-off to Detour Gold in 2007, leaving Pelangio with a 50% equity interest in that company (subsequently delivered directly to Pelangio’s shareholders).
Focused on Ghana Following Pelangio’s success in Ontario, it has transferred its experience, expertise and strategies to the even richer gold belts of Ghana, West Africa.
Ingrid says: “We’re currently focused on Ghana as we believe it provides the perfect blend of supportive government and communities, a well educated pool of geological and mining talent and, most importantly, tremendous geological potential. I think one would be hard pressed to find a country with more five million plus ounce discoveries in the past fifteen years than Ghana. The major mining companies seem to agree as they are all actively mining there, or actively looking to enter the country.”
Ghana is Africa’s second largest gold producer after South Africa. Almost 60 million ounces were mined there during the last century and over 100 million ounces of reserves and resources are estimated to be remaining in the ground. The country is often rated as having one of the best combinations of jurisdiction and geology for gold exploration of any in the world. Pelangio holds 100% interests in two properties totaling nearly 400 square kilometers on the country’s two major gold belts.
Company-Making AssetsThe first of these is Manfo, the company’s latest acquisition, and a property for which Ingrid has high expectations: “Our 100 square kilometer Manfo property is a company maker located near Newmont’s flagship Ahafo mine, which is growing rapidly and produced 545,000 ounces of gold in 2010. We’ve made five brand new, near surface discoveries at Manfo in a year, both high grade and bulk tonnage, and we’re fairly certain that there are many more to be made. We currently have two rigs working on the property and plan to add a third in the coming months. We think we may be drilling Ghana’s next great gold deposit at Manfo.”
Manfo, located on the prolific Sefwi gold belt, fits in with the company’s policy of acquiring large land packages in established gold mining areas. Newmont’s Ahafo mine is only 14 kilometers to the north while Kinross Gold Corporation’s Chirano mine is 50 kilometers to the south and on the same fault network. Pelangio took time in reviewing the property before optioning it and has since been keen to develop relationships with the local communities. During fall 2010, Pelangio completed an initial 16 hole drilling program totaling 2,379 meters and is now approximately half-way through a second phase drill program of over 30,000 meters.
Game-Changing PotentialPelangio’s second main Ghana project is Obuasi, another property that Ingrid thinks has plenty of blue sky: “Our 290 square kilometer Obuasi property has game-changing potential and the best exploration address in Ghana. It’s located right beside AngloGold Ashanti’s high-grade super giant Obuasi mine, which has produced over 30 million ounces of gold since 1897. The ore at the mine is hosted in a series of 14 ore shoots, averaging three to five million ounces each, that trend towards our property. We have one rig drilling there right now to find the next one of those ore shoots on our property. If we prove our theory that the ore shoots do not stop at the man-made property boundary, there may be many more shoots to be discovered.”
Obuasi hosts an 8.92 million ounce reserve in a measured and indicated resource of 18.13 million ounces plus 11.4 million ounces of inferred resource. Pelangio acquired the property in 2006 and has since completed over 18,000 meters of drilling, with a further 5,000+ metre program underway on the fifteen kilometers or so of Obuasi-style structures traversing the property.
Track RecordPelangio has a highly experienced team that is concentrating on making discoveries and defining resources. It also has two camp sized properties in Ghana that complement each other perfectly, with Manfo growing quickly into a sizeable resource and Obuasi holding tremendous potential for a major discovery. Moreover, as Ingrid points out, the company has a track record of benefiting its shareholders: “At Pelangio, we’re in the business of wealth generation for our shareholders and the communities where we work. We did it with Detour Lake, where our shareholders have earned returns of over 8,000% since 2004. We’re doing it again at Manfo with brand new discoveries and Obuasi may eclipse them both if our theory proves true.”
For more Information:
www.pelangio.com
Pelangio Exploration Inc.
440 Harrop Drive, 2nd Floor
Milton, Ontario
Canada L9T 3H2
Tel: 905-875-3828
Toll Free 1-877-746-1632
Email: info@pelangio.com
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