Nyota holds a 45% indirect interest in the Swazigold Project in Swaziland, Africa. The project is a large (435 square kilometre) gold exploration play in the highly prospective Archaean Barberton Greenstone Belt in Swaziland, historically a producer of 11.5 million ounces of gold.
Potential
Greenstone belts of Archaean age are known to contain gold in most of the ancient cratonic blocks that form the nucleus of the continents. When the ancient lavas extruded onto the earliest formed continental crust, major gold deposits were formed. This is the case not only in southern Africa but also in Canada and Australia, where the giant Kalgoorlie goldfield is particularly renowned. Such belts are also prospective for nickel.
Previous owners drilled some 13,500 metres of the Project area, providing the Company with a drill database that includes numerous gold intersections. These have allowed Nyota to determine targets for both infill drilling and the development of extensions to established zones of mineralization. From an initial review of the geology, the Company believes the Project has the potential for proving more than 2 million ounces of high-grade gold mineralization. Already, numerous targets, ranging from advanced drilling projects to promising geochemical anomalies, have been identified along a 40-kilometre strike length.
Advantages
Advantages of the Project include the following:
- Substantial geological database already in existence.
- Some 13,600 metres of drill data (valued at more than US$2 million) available.
- Good field access and local infrastructure.
- Local management/geological/technical team already in place.
- Located in the Rand Common Monetary Area, just 3 hours' drive from Johannesburg.