Nabila Project
During late May 2008 Geopacific Resources NL completed the purchase of Millennium Mining (Fiji) Limited (“Millennium”) which holds title to the Nabila Gold Project, (Special Prospecting Licence (‘SPL’) 1216) and the Kavukavu Project (SPL 1415) located southwest of Nadi. Millennium is a mineral exploration company incorporated in Fiji.
The Nabila Gold Project contains the Faddy’s epithermal-type gold deposit (Figure 1), where near-surface mineralisation has been estimated as 920,000t @ 4.9g/t Au (144,000 ounces of contained gold) by Climax Mining Ltd in 1991 (this is not considered to be of JORC reporting standard and is not an estimate of Mineral Resources as defined by the JORC Code).
There is excellent potential for Geopacific to substantiate this gold mineralisation and to discover additional mineralisation through exploration in the surrounding area. The Faddy’s mineralisation appears to be open along trend (north-south) and at depth and previous drill sampling has not taken into account the occurrence of nuggetty gold which in parts of the deposit may significantly improve on reported gold grades. Figure 2 is a typical cross section through the Faddy’s Deposit and shows the traces of drill holes along grid 3500E. Gold assays between 0.5-2.5g/t are shown in green and assays over 2.5g/t Au are in pink or red. Near-surface mineralisation and depth continuity of the mineralisation have clearly not been tested by previous work.
The Kavukavu Project is located to the south of the Nabila Project and contains base metal skarn and epithermal gold mineralisation. Other Companies have reported assays up to 25.0% Zn and 5.60% Cu in surface rock samples but subsequent exploration has failed to locate significant mineral resources despite widespread mineralised float rock at the Tau and Kavukavu Prospects as well as many other anomalies within SPL1415.
The infrastructure in both projects is excellent. Sealed and gravel roads, adequate bridges and proximity to Nadi township enables year-round access. There is ample fresh water and electrical power is available on the existing main electricity grid. The nearby regional centre of Nadi contains infrastructure and services which would be helpful support for future mining operations in the Nabila Project.
The Nabila and Kavukavu Projects could provide Geopacific with excellent resources for short-term gold and base metal production. Fast tracking Faddy’s through feasibility study and into production with an annual gold output of over 25,000 ounces could be accomplished within a relatively short timeframe compared with many countries, including Australia.
The Projects also contain promising exploration prospects which have the potential to host economic mineralisation which may be identified through the application of modern exploration. During early – mid 2008 Geopacific plans to undertake confirmatory drill testing and preliminary scoping studies at the Faddy’s Gold Deposit and regional exploration in both the Nabila and Kavukavu Projects.