Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/638235
f e b r u a r y / m a r c h 2 0 1 6 www.resourceworld.com 43 exhibit groundwater chemistry similar to that found at Nevada's major gold mines: Grass Valley, South Grass Valley, Kelly Creek, Hot Pot and Awakening. Since the Earth is subject to the same chemical and physical forces in simi- lar geological environments, the potential applications of groundwater chemistry exploration technology is broad. "The search for blind deposits is not limited to Nevada nor to gold, and there are other places in the world where explorers have turned to groundwater sampling, such as Arizona, Labrador, Québec, Macedonia and the Balkans," said Buskard. "However, to date, groundwater has predomi- nantly only been used to explore for copper and uranium, not gold. Because gold is not very soluble, we are dealing with very low concentrations of gold in groundwater, and until recently there simply hasn't been commercial lab tech- nology to analyze water at these ultra-trace concentrations." Buskard noted that about 15 years ago suitable equipment in commercial labs became available, and that they can now dependably analyze water samples down to the single part per trillion levels required to use groundwater chemistry for gold exploration. Buskard said he would encourage other exploration companies interested in his company's groundwater technology to contact him. "We are always look- ing for opportunities to leverage our technology to work with other explorers through partnerships, joint ventures, royalties, or other participation rights," he said. "We're even open to looking beyond Nevada, for example, we think our technology would be a good fit for exploring for gold in Australia's large covered areas." Nevada Exploration has already reached agreements with groups such as mcewen mining inc. [MUX-TSX, NYSE] in Nevada. "McEwen Mining had a large land position in Nevada, much of which is covered, and they engaged us to help focus and prioritize their efforts," said Buskard. "The program went well, and we received a service fee and a small royalty." He added, "The best thing was that we won the confidence of their explo- ration team and so when our technology later defined another nearby target – which is now our Grass Valley Project – we brought it to them and they agreed to pay for everything to establish the new project." Buskard remarked that the amount of data his team collects with groundwa- ter sampling is huge. "For a relatively small amount of money we can evaluate large areas and reduce them down to targets the size of a few square miles," he said. "In this time of tight capital, we are continuing to collect groundwater samples to build our database and our inventory of targets. We are positioning ourselves to lead our peers in the search for the second half of Nevada's gold endowment when market conditions improve." In the exploration business, it is good to know where not to explore, thus the groundwater technology actually reduces exploration risk and exploration costs by focusing on areas most likely to host large, near-surface, oxidized gold deposits. Buskard is of the view that using groundwater technology to search for gold deposits has a great future. "Analyzing groundwater chemistry is a common sense approach to exploring in covered settings. It has been used successfully for other commodities, and we have figured out how to now use it for gold. What groundwater geochemistry brings to the table is a previously missing scale of information. Until now, the covered areas have been too big. There hasn't been a good way to reduce these prospective but large covered areas down to discrete targets deserving of the more costly next stage tools like geo- physics and drilling. It is not a silver bullet, and it needs to be used alongside all of our other sources of information, but with time groundwater chemistry will become a core tool in every explorer's toolbox." n Alexander Nubia drilling Hamama Project in Egypt Mark Campbell, CEO, Alexander Nubia international inc. [AAN-TSXV; ANLBF- OTC], reported drilling will resume in February at its 100%-owned Hamama gold- rich VMS project in Egypt's Eastern Desert. Drilling will be concentrated on Hamama West, in particular on the gold-oxide cap and the primary sulphides at depth, where previous drilling intercepted significant mineralization, including 43.5 metres at 2.61 g/t gold, 150 g/t silver, 3.70% zinc and 0.23% copper in drill hole AHA-58 (see news release dated Nov. 2, 2015). The program has 12 drill fences proposed at 40-metre-by-40-metre drill centres for a total of 3,345 metres of diamond drilling in 32 holes. Drilling will focus on oxide min- eralization at surface, the oxide/sulphide transition zone and the primary sulphides at depth. Ten oxide composite drill core samples from the gold-oxide cap will be shipped to ALS Minerals in Kamloops for metallurgi- cal testing, including mineral identification of copper and zinc species using Qemscan and XRD analysis. Capital Drilling has been retained for the drilling program at Hamama, using rigs based in Egypt. Campbell stated, "We are ramping up our exploration program in Egypt, drilling the Hamama oxide and primary sulphides to a true vertical depth of 150 metres. We have recently met with the Egyptian Mineral Research Authority (EMRA) and are work- ing closely with them to develop Hamama West and additional targets and to discuss the updated mining law that came into effect towards the end of 2015. Concurrent to drilling Hamama, the exploration team is preparing drill targets at the historic gold mine of Abu Zawal, where drilling will commence in April 2016." n