Located in eastern French Guiana, Maripa is approximately 50km south of the capital city of Cayenne
Image: Columbus Gold has reported additional high-grade gold discoveries at the Maripa gold project. Photo: courtesy of Steve Bidmead/Pixabay.
Columbus Gold has reported additional high-grade gold discoveries at the Maripa gold project located in French Guiana, South America.
The Canada-based exploration company has completed a high-resolution magnetic and radiometric heliborne geophysical survey at the project.
In July 2018, Columbus signed an agreement with IAMGOLD for an option to acquire up to a 70% stake in Maripa.
Located in eastern French Guiana, Maripa is approximately 50km south of the capital city of Cayenne. The project comprises of five contiguous exploration permits that cover an area of 120km2.
Further, the project is located along the southern border of French Guiana with Suriname of a regional deformation zone called Northern Guiana Trough (NTG) which is known to be a hugely favorable geological setting for gold mineralisation.
The Rosebel mine owned by IAMGOLD is also located on the NTG in Suriname.
Columbus said that Filon Dron and Changement, two of the five partially drill-defined gold zones at Maripa, were prioritised for a comprehensive evaluation, extension drilling and resource definition.
In June, prospecting in and around the Changement and Filon Dron gold zones started to prepare for the start of drill programmes in early 2020.
According to Columbus Gold, the Maripa gold project is contained in an area where gold has been mined for more than 100 years. The past producing Changement mine, which recorded gold production of nearly 40,000 ounces of gold between 1985 and 1996, is located within the Maripa project area.
Past exploration at Maripa
Past exploration at Maripa consists of 134 core holes, for a total of 9,000 metres. The exploration partially defined five broad gold zones, namely Changement, Filon Dron, Maripa Sud-Est, Rhyodacite and Filon Scieur.
Columbus said that the geological setting at Maripa is similar to IAMGOLD’s s Rosebel gold mine (15.2Moz) in Suriname, highlighted by a faulted contact between volcanic assemblages of the Paramaca Formation and younger pull-apart basin coarse detrital sediments of the Upper Detrital Unit (UDU or Rosebel Formation).