RANDSBURG ISSUES VICTORY STRIKE UPDATE
HIGHLIGHTS:
- SUCCESSFUL GROUND PENETRATING RADAR SURVEY REVEALS
PALEO-CHANNEL
- ADDITIONAL KIMBERLITES
CONFIRMED
- ADDITIONAL DIAMONDS RECOVERED FROM THE PROPERTY
- BULK SAMPLING PROGRAM
PLANNED
- SOURCE FOR ALLUVIAL/PLACER DIAMONDS POSSIBLY NARROWED TO FIVE
KIMBERLITES
TORONTO, November 13, 2007 /CNW/ - Randsburg International Gold Corporation (TSX-V:RGZ)
announced today an update to its Victory Strike diamond project. The
Company has been engaged in an evaluation of possible extensions of the
historic alluvial and placer operations on the southern portion of the
property. As well, the Company has continued to search for the kimberlite source of the diamonds on the property. As a
result of work conducted on the Company’s concessions, the Company
plans to undertake a bulk sampling program.
Randsburg’s Brazilian
subsidiary, DIADEM Minera��o
LTDA, has a 100% interest in the exploration permits that cover the
prospective area of 526.6 square kilometres (130,124 acres). Randsburg owns 85% of the subsidiary. The concessions
extend to within 150
metres of the famous diamond producing area of the Verissimo River from which diamonds have been recovered
for more than 100 years including the famous Goias
diamond, discovered in 1906 and weighing 600 carats.
The work has been conducted under the direction of
the Company’s Chief Geologist, Dr. Ken Germundson,
P. Geo and Company Director Bill Jarvis, who is overseeing the
Company’s Victory Strike diamond exploration project in Brazil. Mr.
Jarvis joined the Company as a Director in May of this year and began work
at the Victory Strike project this past summer. Mr. Jarvis has 30 years of
diamond exploration experience.
In September 2007, a test of the
Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) method was conducted by an independent
Brazilian Company on two small grids (grids 1 and 4) at two locations on
the Victory Strike Property. The test was to determine the applicability of
the method in this geological setting. The test is regarded as a success
and more use of Ground Penetrating Radar is planned.
Grid 1 was established in the southern part of the
property along side of existing garimpeiro mining
of terrace gravels located along the west side of the valley of the Vai Vem River, which crosses
the entire property in a north-south direction. The grid consists of 300 metres of base
line and 1,050
metres of cross-lines that are spaced 50 metres apart. The
limits of the buried gravel bed away from and up slope from the workings
have been established. There is good definition of the alluvial sedimentary
layers to a depth of 8
metres with some readable penetration to 12 metres. An old
river channel, a paleo-channel is present within
the buried and untested extension of the gravel. The Company plans to
evaluate the economic potential of the buried gravels in this part of the
property with a bulk sampling program.
Within the Grid 1 area,
three samples of the gravels of 150 dry kilograms each from the face of the
garimpeiro workings have also been collected and
kimberlitic indicator minerals have been recovered. Bill Jarvis has stated
that, in his view, the surface textural characteristics of the kimberlitic
indicator minerals in the samples show that their source is local. If this
is the case and the direction of drainage has not changed, the source of
the diamonds in the gravels could be from kimberlites
within the Victory Strike Property. The property extends for 14 kilometres
upstream from the gravel deposit towards the north and drainages to the
west comprise another 10 linear kilometres of stream. Kimberlites
have already been discovered within 3 kilometres of
the Grid 1 alluvial gravel deposits.
A clear, white octahedral
diamond weighing approximately 0.035 carats with dimensions of 1.2x1.2x1 mm
was recovered from the +1mm concentrate of a stream sediment sample 500 metres
downstream of kimberlite A40. The size of the
sample was 150 dry kilograms. The purpose of the work was to recover
kimberlitic indicator minerals as part of a kimberlite
exploration program. This kimberlite or perhaps
one or two others (A38 and A39) discovered in the area upstream, may be the
source of this diamond.
Kimberlites are the most
important source of primary diamonds in the world. Many kimberlite
pipes also produce rich alluvial or eluvial
diamonds placer deposits.
The company’s geologists believe that the
source of the gravel deposits and the gravels of the paleo-channel
as defined by the GPR, is from the smaller stream draining the A38, A39 and
A40 kimberlite pipes and/or the stream draining
A34 and A74 rather than an old channel of the Vai
Vem River. The basins of the two streams drain
areas underlain by quartzite-rich schists which
could be the source of the gravels. Both sets of kimberlites
have been emplaced along major normal faults. A40 is about 300 metres in
diameter.
Three diamonds, now in possession of the Company,
were recovered by a garimpeiro on the east side
of the Vai-Vem River on the Company’s
concessions while the Company’s geologists were working on the
property in June. It is unknown from what quantity of material these stones
were recovered (pictures of the diamonds will be posted to the
Company’s website at www.randsburginternational.com). The diamonds
are described as follows:
1 stone, clear white,
brilliant, inclusion free, 2.38 carats, (rounded stretched crystal shape,
8.3 x 6.1 x 4.9 mm)
1 stone, white with
yellowish inclusion, broken macle shape, internal
fractures visible, 1.2 carats, irregular cleavage fragment, showing obvious
breakage, longest dimension 8.2
mm. There are indications that the stone was considerably
larger at one time.
1
stone, white with inclusions, 0.7 carats. Irregular
broken shape, 5.9 x 4.2 x 3.6
mm.
More importantly, based on
all of the work done to date on this part of the concessions, including the
GPR work in Grid 1 and further stream sediment sampling, the
Company’s geologists believe that the source of the diamonds and
kimberlite indicator minerals being found on the western side of the river
in the garimpeiro gravels may be related to three kimberlites (A38, A39,
A40) and the source of the diamonds on the east side of this river may be
related to two geophysical anomalies (A34 and A74), now confirmed as
kimberlites. Significantly, no kimberlite indicator minerals have been
found upstream from A34. Also, such a scenario would provide an explanation
for the absence of other mined diamondiferous gravels elsewhere on the Vai
Vem River. However, the source for all of the diamonds found in the gravels
could be one or more of any of the above mentioned kimberlites.
The second GPR grid, Grid
4, centered in the northern part of the property where diamonds were
discovered by the Company in 2005 was designed to look for buried deposits
and channels (see www.sedar.com for all copies
of the Company’s news releases). The GPR, in conjunction with auger
drilling, confirms that any layering evident is not related to alluvial
action. The Company is planning additional work in this area.
Additional
use of Ground Penetrating Radar, to provide data for the preliminary
evaluation of other gravel deposits that are present on the property are
also planned along with extensions of the recently discovered paleo-channel
and historic garimpeiro workings. The applicability of the method to define
the size and shape of kimberlite discoveries will also be tested.
The
Company has arranged with an internationally recognized Corporation that
specializes in Ground Penetrating Radar to conduct a test GPR survey over
portions of the Company’s concessions using this Corporation’s
new system. The work will include additional work on the southern part of
the Company’s concessions described above. This work is intended to
further evaluate the area described above as Grid 4 and to locate
potentially unknown kimberlites and kimberlitic dykes which may be the
source of the diamonds discovered in 2005. This Corporation indicates that
its new technology is able to see to depths of 200 metres which is
four to five times the penetration of previous systems. In addition, the
new technology provides at least double the resolution of these previous
systems. The new system has never been used in Brazil to find or delineate
kimberlites but has been used successfully elsewhere. The field work for
this test GPR program is expected to begin before the end of the year. However,
a confirmed start date has not been established and additional time is
required for the data to be interpreted.
Dr. Ken Germundson, P. Geo., is the
Company’s Qualified Person under the meaning of National Instrument
43-101 for the Victory Strike Project. Dr. Germundson has reviewed this
news release and approved its contents.
About Bill Jarvis:
Mr. Jarvis has a strong professional background in
geology and has specialized in diamond exploration since he started in the
field in 1977. From 1977 to 1982, he worked in Zambia and Angola on
kimberlite exploration and diamond deposit evaluation and mining projects
with De Beers and Anglo American Corp. From 1983 to 1993, he served as
chief geologist for kimberlite exploration projects in the Great Lakes
Region, which were eventually funded by Ashton Mining. During 1993 and
1994, he was involved, as Chief Geologist of Canamera Geological Corp. of
Vancouver, in the discovery of several kimberlite pipes in the Northwest
Territories, including the 5034/Kennedy Lake kimberlite pipe of Mountain
Province Diamonds Inc. and the Tahera Diamond Corporation discoveries. He
holds a Bachelor of Science Degree (Honours Geology) from the University of
Dundee in Scotland.
For the past thirteen years, Mr. Jarvis has
primarily been engaged as a consultant working for several independent
diamond exploration companies advising on projects in Brazil, Venezuela,
Botswana, South Africa, Angola, Guinea, Baffin Island, Ontario and Saskatchewan.
Mr. Jarvis is currently consulting on projects in the Democratic Republic
of Congo and Sierra Leone. He is also working with a major international
geological consulting group, specializing in reviewing diamond exploration
projects.
ABOUT RANDSBURG INTERNATIONAL GOLD CORP.:
Randsburg International Gold Corporation is a
Canadian exploration company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (Symbol
TSX-V:RGZ). The Company is engaged in exploring for diamonds, titanium,
iron, precious and base metals, and platinum group metals (PGMs) in Brazil,
Canada and Idaho. The Company has two active exploration projects and one
new joint venture property.
1.
Victory Strike diamond project in Brazil - 85% owned
2. Titan Project (iron-titanium-vanadium) in Northern Ontario - 100% owned
3.
Empire Mine property in Idaho – a 50% owned Joint Venture
On
behalf of the Board of Directors of Randsburg
International Gold Corp.
"Michael Opara"
, President and Chief Executive Officer,
eMail: info@randsburginternational.com
The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept
responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Copyright, 2007 Randsburg
International Gold Corporation. This news release can be reproduced and retransmitted
in whole, with no changes permitted of any kind, including headlines, or
the addition of any headlines or other material, and providing it is
supplied and made available without charge to the end reader.
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