Welcome to Solomon Gold plc
Solomon Gold plc offers investors the opportunity to participate in one of the most prospective regions in the world for giant porphyry copper/gold systems at a time of strong demand for gold and copper.
Highlights include:
- A region (“Pacific Rim of Fire”) of >40Moz gold equivalent orebodies
- Strong local and government support for mineral exploration - access and compensation agreements finalised
- Solomon Gold is well established, active and experienced in Solomon Islands
- Management track record of discovery
- 22 targets identified
- Current drilling program with three drilling rigs
- Definition of strongly mineralised intrusive system in the Sutakik – Koloula valleys.
“Solomon Islands is perhaps the most prospective Pacific island country for minerals after PNG” – South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission 2001
“The project area covers the most prospective areas in Guadalcanal for porphyry copper-gold mineralisation” – Kenex independent prospectivity analysis 2005
Solomon Gold listed on the AIM Board of the LSE in February 2006 following a £5m raising. The company immediately set about the task of activating a continual drilling program on the key target areas.
The “Pacific Rim of Fire” is noted for its discoveries of giant porphyry copper/gold ore bodies containing in excess of 40 million ounces of gold equivalent as gold and copper. These ore bodies include Grasberg in Irian Jaya, Ok Tedi and Frieda River on the PNG mainland, and Panguna on Bougainville. Solomon Gold directors believe the Guadalcanal geology indicates the project area could host ore bodies of similar magnitude. Independently, The South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) in 2001 concluded, in a review of the region, that “Solomon Islands was (is) perhaps the most prospective of the Pacific island nations for minerals after Papua New Guinea ”.
The Solomon gold tenements are held in Australian Resource Management Pty Ltd ("ARM") a wholly owned subsidiary of Solomon Gold plc. The tenements were granted in November 2005 for a period of three years with two rights of renewal for a further 2 years (4yrs) for each tenement.
Work initially focussed on the highly mineralised Mbetilonga area only 15 km south of the capital of Honiara. Detailed mapping and sampling has confirmed the presence of very high order copper gold mineralisation and 5 drillholes were put into the target areas. Very complex geology and a barren cover sequence has masked the host mineralisation which has not yet been intersected in the drilling. The presence of extensive areas of copper mineralisation in soils over 0.1% copper and rock chip results up to 13% and aeromagnetic and radiometric signatures characteristic of large porphyry systems highlights the unconcluded prospectivity of this area.The company has suspended its work on Mbetilonga pending investigation of the very promising Sutakiki and Koloula Valley prospects.
In July 2006, the company gained access into the Sutakiki Valley, 30 km south east of the capital, Honiara. The area showed a strong stream sediment anomaly indicative of a major mineral system upstream. The area lies at the intersection of the axis of Guadalcanal, along the Rim of Fire and a transform structure which is believed to also host mineralisation to the north east at Gold Ridge (2 m oz Au). Field reconnaissance by Solomon Gold geologists resulted in the discovery of mineralised porphyry systems on the Sutakiki River and fresh faces exposed by landslides returned assays averaging 7g/t gold (excluding a 1,000 g/t sample). Detailed mapping and sampling in the area defined mineralisation over a 3 x 1.5 km area. Drilling of a complex vein system to the east (Holes SK01 to 07) followed and while widespread low grade gold and copper mineralisation was encountered, it was determined that the core of the sutakiki mineral system was located to the west.
Solomon Gold field activities at Sutakiki are now focused on the area west of the discovery outcrop at Sutakiki, in an area known as the Uluda Dome. The Uluda Dome is characterised by domed volcanic cover rocks and sediments, fractured and overprinted sporadically by late stage veins carrying significant gold and copper anomalies. Notably, the geological crews discovered an intrusive or “diatreme” breccia, diagnostic of the presence of nearby porphyry systems, grading 3.5 g/t gold. The company has directed two drilling rigs to test the Uluda Dome area with an emphasis on SK09, which is drilling to the west to test a substantial potassium anomaly over the Uluda Dome.
August 2007 saw the arrival of a third rig which was deployed to the Koloula Valley, to test the Mbina Porphyry and adjacent gold zone which had been outlined in the 1990s. the first hole in the Koloula Valley by Solomon Gold is currently under way and is intersecting vein style mineralisation in sporadic zones down the hole.
Solomon Gold is optimistic that the 50km2 zone of mineralised intrusive rocks which have been defined between the Sutakiki and Koloula Valleys is host to a significant mineralised porphyry system which has the potential to contain similar gold and copper resources as other large mineralised porphyry systems in the south west Pacific region.
