African Queen Mines finds visible gold, several drill targets

African Queen Mines Ltd. (CVE:AQ) said Thursday it has identified many drill targets and encountered visible gold near surface at its Kenyan Ugunja gold project.

The Phase 1b exploration program also found a structure with potential to host commercial deposits, African Queen said in a statement.

“We are delighted that preliminary exploration results from both our Ugunja and Odundu projects in Western Kenya are generating positive results with identification of highly prospective drill targets,” African Queen's chief executive Irwin Olian said.

“Kenya is becoming an increasingly important focus of African Queen's exploration activities and we look forward to much success in Kenya in the future.”

The Ugunja project covers 370 square kilometres in the Lakeland district north of the shores of Lake Victoria in Western Kenya.

Work at the project has included rock sampling, trenching, mapping and ground geophysics surveys. African Queen noted visible gold has been identified in many samples of quartz vein.

This vein, which reaches 80 centimetres in width, occurs along a structure that can be traced for 240 metres.

The miner completed four trenches totalling 71 metres, while 99 samples were collected from the site and are being prepared by Kenya Mineral Services, and shipped to Australia for gold analysis.

During the prospecting campaign, about 20 gold mining work sites were located and a number of black quartz was found at these sites.

It plans to perform further trenching on several of these locations.

Separately, the gold miner also finished 13 square km ground magnetic surveys over the Ligega area, and has located potential gold-bearing structures.

Under a joint venture agreement with Kenyan-based Abba Mining Company, African Queen can earn up to an 85 percent interest in the project by funding prescribed optional stages from exploration through feasibility.

The company is also the manager and operator of the property.

Vancouver-based African Queen is exploring its properties in Mozambique, Ghana and Kenya for gold and other metals and it is undertaking exploration in Botswana and Namibia for diamonds, gold and other metals.