Marovato
The Marovato Gold Project is located approximately one hundred and twenty kilometers east from
Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, and occurs within the eastern seabord province of
Toamasina. The project comprises three contiguous squares and the area under tenure totals
eighteen and three quarters (18.75) square kilometers. Project title is one hundred percent
(100%) in the name of PAMM. PAMM acquired this property by purchase.
Moravato Gold Project
- Marovato A-6, Measured Historic Gold Resource Approximately 200,000 oz. identified by the BRGM
- Last Important Commercial Hard Rock Gold Mine in Madagascar, located in the East. Closed in 1947 during civil strife.
- NI 43-101Technical Report Completed by Peter A. Christopher & Associates
- Field Exploration program now underway to develop drill targets. Project managed by Don White, P.Geol.
Access
Access to the project area is east, from Antananarivo, along the bitumen Route Nationale-2,
for a distance of approximately one hundred and forty kilometers, to the small village of
Ambavaniasy, then north and northeast, along rough local roads and village tracks, for a
distance of approximately twenty-five kilometers, to the former minesite. Project
infrastructure is considered reasonable.
The project occurs towards the southern end of the north–south trending
" Beforona – Aladira" Belt (Besairie, 1966). The Beforona–Aladira Belt extends for at
least four hundred kilometers in strike, and varies to thirty five kilometers in width. Rock
types within the Beforona Aladira Belt are dominated by granitic migmatite and amphibolite,
and have been assigned to the System du Vohibory (Besairie, 1966). From Besairie (1973),
the System du Vohibory can be constrained to the age 2.7 to 3.0 Ga.
Marovato was Madagascar’s last important operating goldmine. The mine was destroyed on
surface and abandoned in haste in 1947, due to the initiation of hostilities by the Malagasy
rebel forces against the French. It has remained essentially abandoned for half a century,
isolated by a relatively poor 25 km. access road through an inhospitable forest. The main
gold-bearing quartz vein of Marovato was discovered in 1939, with the reported discovery of
a quartz block weighing about 20 kg., of which 2.4 kg. was gold.
The project presents itself essentially as approximately thirty lens-shaped quartz veins,
three of which are known to be of interesting tenor. These three veins display strike length
varying between two and six kilometers, and widths which vary between 0.35 and 1.50 meters
(Besairie, 1949). The most highly mineralized vein (Vein I), is located approximately ten
meters west from Vein II (Besairie, 1949).
An excerpt from Besairie (1949) follows:
"The Marovato deposit..............is the last vein deposit to have been subjected to
recent works, which stopped by 1952. It is during the last war (World War II) that the deposit
attracted attention and some research was done by the Service des Exploitations Minières
(A. Lenoble). The mine is composed of three quartz veins interstratified. Vein I has strike
of four kilometers, and has been explored with shafts, trenches and galleries. Vein I is
between 35 and 150 centimeters wide. Vein II, ten meters to the east, seems to show 1800
meters of strike, and small works have been made here. Vein III, further away, is less rich.
The ore is composed of quartz with pyrites and gold bearing chalcopyrite, and areas having
free gold. In the end of 1945 there was 520 meters of galleries with shafts to 70 meters depth,
a factory with a hydraulic 30 horsepower wheel. Lenoble estimated the recognized reserves to be
5.5 tons of gold. With not yet perfect processing, some 250 tons of ore returned 3,025 grams
of gold or 12 grams per ton. This recovered grade did not include the gold of the sulphide,
estimated at 7 grams per ton. A later sampling program, brought to the analysis by fusion,
returned an average content of 13 to 16 grams per ton.". (finish excerpt)
The foregoing estimated mineable reserves of A. Lenoble are considered to be measured
historical resources to comply with CIM guidelines as required by NI43-101. The measured
historical resources are not current and have not been verified by the Company through
independent study. There are no data available on the existence of low -grade halo
mineralization. The Company is not aware of any exploration activity during the past
half-century, although consulting geologists for the Company have inspected the property
superficially.
The Company considers the project to be an extremely attractive exploration target. The
three quartz veins present as immediate exploration targets and potential exists for halo
mineralization to occur, especially within the ten meter zone, across strike, between veins
I and II. Considerable expansion of the historic resource may be possible with trenching and
drilling of nearby related mineralized zones. From figure Maro-1, there are numerous
occurrences of surface gold mineralization within the project area, all of which present
as attractive gold exploration targets. Minor clearing and reworking of the 25 km.
forest access road would render the project logistically feasible, as it is relatively
near National Route-2 and reasonably close to Antananarivo.