Kilo Goldmines starts exploration program at Somituri gold project

Toronto-based Kilo Goldmines (CVE:KGL) said Tuesday that an exploration program is currently underway at its Somituri project in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), designed to improve the company's knowledge of certain gold-bearing targets.

The Somituru project consists of eight exploitation licenses, valid until 2039, within the Ngayu Greenstone Belt, Oriental Province.

The current campaign will include trenching, soil sampling and diamond drilling with two rigs on selected targets on exploitation permit PE9691.

The gold targets are all situated within a 10 kilometre radius of a possible central processing facility where material could be blended, the company said.

At PE691, 2010 exploration data, coupled with historical data has, to date, defined seven areas that warrant further exploration. A number of soil samples collected last year returned anomalous values equal to, or greater than, 0.20 grams per tonne of gold.

Drilling in 2010 on the Adumbi gold deposit, which has a 1.2 kilometre strike length, delineated a gold zone with an NI 43-101 compliant inferred resource of 2.03 million ounces, grading 1.37 g/t gold, at a cut-off grade of 0.50 g/t.  The strike extensions of this deposit remain open beyond the limits of the current resource.

“Historical data coupled with results of the 2010 exploration activities has confirmed that a number of highly prospective Adumbi size targets may occur on PE9691," said chairman Peter Hooper. 

"The main focus of the 2011 program will be to i) infill drill the Adumbi Deposit in the high grade areas to both increase the total resource and convert inferred ounces to indicate ounces, and ii) define new NI43-101 compliant resources by drill testing each of the other high priority exploration prospects.

"In addition, surface work consisting of further soil sampling and trenching will be carried out beyond the defined limits of the known zones with the objective of delineating additional drill targets."

At the Manzako prospect, located on the same permit as Adumbi, 2010 diamond drilling intersected multiple gold-bearing intervals in two widely spaced drill holes. Gold intersections in SMDD002 included 3.90 metres at 2.63 g/t gold, and 4.70 metres at 9.37 g/t gold.

In addition to prospects on the PE691 permit, exploration is being carried out on PE9692, 35 kilometres to the west northwest of PE9691, and an initial evaluation of the gold potential on the other six licences of the Somituri project is planned.

"The initial exploration success on PE9692 is particularly encouraging and the company plans to carry out follow-up exploration as well as continue with preliminary exploration over selected areas of the remaining seven Exploitation Licences of the Somituri Project," added Hooper.

Canadian gold explorer Kilo has more than 7,000 square kilometres in the Kilo-Moto area in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The company owns a 71.25% interest in the DRC entity that holds the Somituri project exploitation permits.