Blackthorn Resources granted three year renewal for two African exploration permits

Friday, October 28, 2011

Blackthorn Resources' (ASX: BTR) two exploration permits in Burkina Faso, Seboun and Sepaogo, have been renewed for a further three years expiring in October 2014.

The Seboun and Sepaogo permit areas cover 185 square kilometres and 26.4 square kilometres respectively and are strategically situated adjacent to the Poa and Guido permits to form a contiguous block covering a total of 521.4 square kilometres.

The company is the 100% holder of seven exploration permits in Burkina Faso covering a total area of 1,060.4 square kilometres and occur in two main groups, called the Northern Tenement and the Southern Tenements. The Northern Tenements are comprised of the Seboun, Poa, Guido and Sepaogo permit areas.

Favourable geology from the Boromo Greenstone belt is included within the exploration permits, which is also host to the Perkoa zinc project and other gold operations in Burkina Faso.

Perkoa is being developed as a partnership 50.1% owned by Glencore (LON: GLEN), 39.9% by Blackthorn and 10% by the government of Burkina Faso. The Perkoa zinc mine is scheduled to start shipments of concentrate in mid-2012, building to an annual rate of 90,000 tonnes contained metal.

The company has planned an exploration program to expand exploration into the Seboun and Sepaogo permit areas in search of additional base metals and/or silver/gold mineralisation.

Upon the discovery of any base metals, primarily zinc and lead, or silver, Blackthorn envisages that the resources could used to supplement the ore reserve at the nearby Perkoa Project. The company considers the discovery of gold would be as a stand-alone operation.

Blackthorn has based its exploration model on Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) style of mineralisation for base metals and silver.

The model assumes the typical characteristic that VMS style deposits generally occur in groups or clusters. The presence of gold is likely to occur as multiple mineralised shear zones and/or gold in vein quartz.

Adding to the prospectivity, there are numerous small-scale artisanal gold mining areas across the area being operated by local Burkinabe’s.

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