Projects
Properties in the Prolific Tapajós Gold District
Brazauro has now assembled what amounts to a strong position within a major district, with multiple attractive gold targets within its land holdings, comprising more than 58,000 hectares (approximately 309 square miles) as a keystone land position in the heart of one of Brazil's hottest gold areas. At its Tocantinzinho property, Brazauro has discovered and outlined the most promising bulk-tonnage gold property of the Tapajós region.
These factors alone make Brazauro a leading player in a region that hosted the most prolific gold rush on the planet - in Brazail's rich Tapajós Gold District - a 350 km. by 300 km. area in the southwest part of Brazil's northerly Pará State.
Among the major exploration/mining companies that have been attracted to the Tapajós area are Rio Tinto, Barrick Gold, Gold Fields and Kinross.
Prime Gold Geology
The Tapajós District has a rich history of alluvial gold production. During the Seventies and Eighties, the Tapajós area annually produced 30% to 40% of Brazil's total gold output. Official government estimates of total Tapajós alluvial gold production (to 1993) place this at between 7 million and 10 million ounces, but actual production is believed to be two to five times higher. Even today, with modern gold exploration basically just starting in the Tapajós Gold District, some 80,000 garimpeiros (local alluvial miners) are reported to be at work in the area's gold-rich streams, producing an officially reported 200,000 to 300,000 ounces of gold annually.
Geologically, the Tapajós region is situated within the gold-productive, Archaean to Middle Proterozoic-aged Brazilian Shield that extends from Brazil through Guyana and into Venezuela. In the immediate area of Brazauro's projects, granitic basement rocks are intruded by subvolcanic andesitic and rhyolitic bodies, all of Lower Proterozoic age. The widespread alluvial gold deposits point to the area's strong bedrock exploration potential, the placers resulting from the underlying vein-type, stockwork, and disseminated gold mineralization that exist along structurally favorable locations of the major intrusive-fed shear zones running through the area..
Exploration History
Brazauro Resources acquired an option on a 100% interest in an initial 4,000-hectare block of the Tocantinzinho property in 2003 in exchange for staged payments of $US 465,000 in cash and 2.6 million shares over four years, plus a commitment to spend $US 1 million in exploration over the period.
The company subsequently expanded its Tocantinzinho property holdings to 43,840 hectares by acquiring adjoining concessions. The importance of the key acquisition was underscored by the fact that Tocantinzinho had earlier, in 1997-99, been advanced to the drill-ready stage by Altoro Gold Corp., which was later acquired by Solitario Resources, then as now also headed by Brazauro's chairman, Mark Jones.
Solitario's initial objective was to joint-venture this project with a major, and to that end it held discussions with several majors, including Newmont Mining, whose exploration programs were then directed by Len Krol, now one of Brazauro's Directors.
Ultimately, as gold prices retreated toward $255/oz. lows, Newmont cut short its involvement in many Latin American projects, and Solitario, unable to carry Tocantinzinho, dropped the property in 1999. It was only with a revived gold market in 2003 that Jones, checking on the availability of the Tocantinzinho property, found, to his surprise, that it was still up for grabs and subsequently optioned it for Brazauro.
Meanwhile, Krol, already familiar with the project, had retired from Newmont and no longer held the post of VP-International Exploration there. He joined the Brazauro team as the company's president to advance the exploration of all Brazauro projects in the Tapajós area. Hence, the original team and original project were reborn under the Brazauro umbrella. Starting with a progressive knowledge of the advanced-stage Tocantinzinho project gives the management group a distinct advantage in now moving this and other Tapajós projects to the next level.
It was also through the recognition of the region's shear zone geology that Brazauro was able to option the nearly 10,000-hectare Mamoal Gold Project. The company subsequently carried out detailed and project-wide geochemical sampling programs at Mamoal. The detailed geochemical grid identified two anomalous drill target zones which were subsequently drilled. Results were not encouraging enough and the company has dropped the Mamoal project as of the beginning of the second quarter of 2006.
Brazauro’s systematic search and property acquisitions were among the first by a North American junior company with the goal to potentially develop modern producing mines along the Tapajós Gold District's Tocantinzinho shear trend.
Some earlier exploration work in the area had already shown the productive potential of this shear zone: Rio Tinto in 1999 carried out 4,000 meters of diamond drilling at the Saõ Jorge deposit, 80 kilometers southeast of Tocantinzinho. Early reported estimates of the gold resource at Sao Jorge varied from 12.7 M tonnes to 37 M tonnes of about 1.5 gr. Au/t. Recent press releases by BrazMin have suggested a diminution in these resources. Serbi Mining’s Palito Mine, located between Tocantinzinho and São Jorge, produced 17,300 oz. Au in 2005 and will produce +40,000 oz. Au in 2006, with expected capacity to reach 50,000 oz. Au per year.
In addition, among several other early exploration efforts, TVX (now Kinross) is reported to have completed exploration on the Cuiu Cuiu area, one of the largest alluvial gold producers in the district. This mining area is located approximately 25 kilometers northwest of the Tocantinzinho property and has recently been consolidated by Mapex.