Gold in Ethiopia

Gold Home

Click HERE for an overview

• MIDROC Gold Mine plc (owned by Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al-Amoudi) operates the Lega Dembi mine in southern Ethiopia. Production averages 3,5 t gold per year. It is an open pit operation and reportedly has reserves of 70 00 kg gold. MIDROC announced in February, 2008, that drilling of the Sakari deposit indicated a resource of 17 250 kg of gold. Wardell Armstrong International is doing the exploration on behalf of MIDROC. Gold was discovered at Sakari in 1975 by prospectors and subsequently confirmed by Russian geologists. MIDROC is also exploring at Metekel Zone to the west in the Benishangul Gumuz Regional State and at Ulaulo, south of Lega Dembi mine.

• National Mining Corporation ( also owned by Saudi tycoon Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi, who was born in Ethiopia) announced a mineable gold discovery at Dawa Dagiti in southern Oromia region. The company has concession right to explore for minerals in 85 square kilometres in the area. The company was also studying evidence of large silver deposits in northern Amhara and Tigray regions.

• Minerva Resources plc is drilling extensions of mineralised zones at Tulu Kapi. The Company is targeting a 500m section of a larger gold zone delineated by numerous mine workings and recent exploration activity. The drilling to date confirmed that there are three broadly continuous sub-parallel zones of mineralisation, which dip to the southwest. Each of the three zones appears to be approximately 10m thick, with good strike and depth continuity. In addition to further drilling at Tulu Kapi, drilling will also be undertaken at the nearby Guji prospect and a number of satellite prospects close to Tulu Kapi and Guji.
  
  Gold nuggets from soil at Tulu Kapi

• WCP Resources Ltd is exploring the Agusha-Gumu Dunga licence which is 100% owned by Addis Resources Development Pty Ltd (ARDCO) and is located 5 kilometres to the northwest of Asosa, the administrative capital of the Benishangul - Gumuz regional state of western Ethiopia. The licence, MLN-35-EL-95, covers an area of 19.76 square kilometres and lies within a greenstone belt having favourable geological and structural settings for gold mineralization.
  Four "target areas", comprising shear-hosted gold mineralisation have been defined at Tsilfa, Hulook, Kushmangal and Gumu Dunga. They have been subjected to initial and follow-up detailed early-stage exploration. Geochemical soil results have outlined significant Au anomalies.
  In particular, the Gumu Dunga gold prospect consists of intensely veined and altered rocks over an area 2,900 metres long by 350 metres wide, defined by loam, soil, rock chip, crush and channel sampling and occur in association with galena-chalcopyrite-pyrite mineralisation.

• ASCOM, Citadel Capital's geology and mining business, announced in January, 2008, the acquisition of gold concessions in northern Ethiopia near Eritrea and the city of Mekele. The concessions, located on four different plots of land are owned by a newly established company called Nubia Mining Development plc, a partnership between ASCOM Ethiopia, which owns 55%, and Ezana Mining, a private-sector Ethiopian mining company, which holds 45%.

• Avion Resources Corporation (TSX VENTURE:AVR) completed its purchase of the exploration assets in the North and West regions of Ethiopia from Aberdeen International Inc. Avion has purchased the rights to a 100% undivided interest in exploration licences in Ethiopia. The area covers approximately 2,674 km2 in the Northern Regional State of Tigray and 1,766 km2 in the Western regional State of Asosa. The exploration licenses lie within the southern extension of the metal-rich Nubian-Arabian Greenstone belt. Over 60 massive sulphide zones, including Nevsun's Bisha deposit and several gold deposits have been discovered in these greenstone belts.

• Sheba Exploration plc explored the Amora Hill gold prospect in 2005.

• No information on the Adola gold mine in southern Ethiopia.

• No information on the Bure and Abergele gold and base metal prospects.