The Gold Report: Why did Sunridge Gold Corp. (SGC:TSX.V; SGCNF:OTCQX) choose to work in Eritrea?
Michael Hopley: We chose Eritrea because of the tremendous opportunity it presents. Members of our geological team had worked on Nevsun Resources Ltd.’s (NSU:TSX; NSU:NYSE.MKT) very large volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) Bisha deposit in western Eritrea. They were aware that there were several other large VMS deposits in Eritrea that had not been properly explored.
TGR: How big is your Asmara project?
MH: VMS occurrences appear in clusters, in districts that are tens of kilometers long and wide. Asmara is essentially a VMS district we’ve had to ourselves. We have so far defined six deposits all within a 30–45 minute drive from Eritrea’s capital, Asmara.
“Asmara is essentially a VMS district we’ve had to ourselves.”
The crown jewel and the center of gravity of the Asmara project is the Emba Derho deposit. This is a 70 million tonne (70 Mt) resource containing over 1 billion pounds (1 Blb) copper and 2.1 Blb zinc, 506,000 ounces gold and 19.5 million ounces silver.
There are two other small deposits within 7 kilometers of Emba Derho: Adi Nefas and Gupo Gold. Adi Nefas is a small deposit, just slightly less than 2 Mt, but it is very high grade: over 10% zinc and 1.8% copper. It also averages 3.3 grams per tonne (3.3 g/t) gold and 115 g/t silver. This would be the only underground mine at the project. Gupo Gold has an Indicated gold resource of 952,000 tonnes at 1.53 g/t and an Inferred resource of 1.8 Mt at 1.85 g/t.
Our fourth major deposit is Debarwa, 45 minutes to the south. It contains 3.3 Mt, with over 200 million pounds (200 Mlb) copper, 70 Mlb zinc and significant gold and silver. Debarwa is also significant because it hosts …read more