Welcome to Solomon Gold plc
Solomon Gold plc offers investors the opportunity to participate in one of the most prospective regions in the world for giant porphyry copper-gold systems at a time of strong demand for gold and copper.
Highlights include:
- A region (“Pacific Rim of Fire”) of >40Moz gold equivalent orebodies
- Strong local and government support for mineral exploration - access and compensation agreements finalised
- Solomon Gold is well established, active and experienced in Solomon Islands
- Management track record of discovery
- Multiple targets identified
- Definition of strongly mineralised intrusive system in the Sutakik – Koloula valleys.
“Solomon Islands is perhaps the most prospective Pacific island country for minerals after PNG”
– South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission 2001
“The project area covers the most prospective areas in Guadalcanal for porphyry copper-gold mineralisation” – Kenex independent prospectivity analysis 2005
About Solomon Gold
Solomon Gold holds several tenement positions in the Solomon Islands, for minerals exploration, focusing on copper and gold rich porphyry systems and high grade epithermal gold mineralisation. In relation to its main tenement holdings on the island of Guadalcanal, the Company enjoys a Joint Venture with Newmont Ventures providing for Newmont to earn a 70% interest by expending US$12m over 5 years. Solomon Gold is the current manager. Further details are provided below.
History
The Company’s evolution started in 1995 with the incorporation of what is now Solomon Gold’s wholly owned subsidiary, Australian Resource Management Pty Ltd (ARM) to tender for the Gold Ridge Exploration Licence. In order to be able to commit to a long term and dedicated exploration program in the Solomons, ARM's directors including Solomon's Current CEO, Mr Nick Mather, engaged in a detailed review of the prospectivity of the entire Solomon Arc and concluded that Guadalcanal was most similar to the island of Bougainville to the North of Solomon Islands, where the RioTinto Panguna giant porphyry system had yielded a resource with in excess of 40m contained ounces gold equivalent in gold and copper.
Solomon Gold continues to believe the project area, located on the southwest Pacific Rim, to host potential for the discovery of a world-class copper gold porphyry system similar to other large ore bodies in the region such as Ok Tedi, Grasberg and Bougainville which host resources in excess of 40m oz of gold equivalent as gold and copper.
Applications for the best available prospective areas on Guadalcanal followed and by June 1996, the company had commenced a reconnaissance program aimed predominantly at the Mbetilonga, Mbina and Chikora project areas. During this program, ARM collected an extensive database of geochemical and geophysical information, including, most usefully a complete 60m elevation helimagnetic survey on a 100m line spacing across the entire tenement area. A total expenditure of some A$3.5m went into the direct exploration efforts from early 1996 to mid 1997.
These areas had been the subject of porphyry copper exploration by Utah Mining in the 1970s and while a considerable amount of data was collected, the best targets were never followed up. The programs were hampered by logistical issues and an almost complete disinterest in the gold credits in the porphyry copper itself and the enriched zones, which were not recognised and lay around the perimeter of the copper systems.
In the 1980s, porphyry copper exploration underwent a significant change as the economic importance of gold in these systems drove exploration for, and an understanding of, the gold rich zones. In the Northern end of the regional arc, the Lihir Island discovery confirmed the importance of tertiary aged island arc volcanism in the formation of large gold bearing systems. In Solomon Islands and on Guadalcanal in particular, the focus also changed to gold exploration and the Gold Ridge orebody was discovered and delineated by Cyprus Australia. Other companies pushed programs deeper into Guadalcanal but were ultimately defeated by an unholy trinity of cultural misunderstandings, geographic challenges and a poor geological understanding or exploration strategy.
In particular:
- a lack of understanding about local landowner issues;
- physical and logistical obstacles in extreme terrain and rainfall; and
- complex and poorly exposed geology, for which no blueprint had yet been developed and for which adequate remote sensing and geophysical exploration techniques had not been developed
…conspired to defeat nearly all the exploration efforts on Guadalcanal.
In 1997 the gold price, equities markets (a traditional source of risk capital) and an internal cultural conflict in Solomon Islands brought exploration to a halt and ARM was one of the few companies in the Country to maintain the currency of its tenures. In 2001, ARM was sold to its new parent, the ASX listed D’Aguilar Gold Ltd, a junior resource project incubator, under the executive guidance of Nick Mather. D’Aguilar held the strong view that the project area would ultimately yield a world class copper gold porphyry and or epithermal gold orebody. Mr Mather’s track record in the discovery and corporate development of significant Australian resources in coal, gas, mineral sands and gold is summarised in the Director Profiles.
In mid 2005 D’Aguilar resolved to pursue a strategy of raising capital and listing ARM on the London Stock Exchange Alternative Investment Market (AIM). Solomon Gold plc was incorporated and was the investment vehicle for ARM, which became a wholly owned subsidiary of Solomon Gold. Solomon Gold was admitted to AIM on 10 February 2006 after a £5m capital raising. The experienced personnel gathered during the 1996-7 campaign were reassembled and the Company set about detailed mapping and sampling programs to bring several targets to drill maturity. The exploration effort was implemented by an active team of expatriate and Solomon Island geologists and field hands, supported by integrated logistics support services, including helicopter service and drilling contractors.
Since the financing and AIM listing, Solomon Gold has identified extensive areas of mineralisation indicative of significant porphyry copper gold and epithermal gold systems. In late 2007 the Company announced an intersection of 32m @ 9.45 g/t gold from 108m in drill hole SK011 at Sutakiki in the centre of the broadly mineralised intrusive system.
On 26 November 2008 the Company signed a terms sheet outlining the principal terms of a proposed agreement with Newmont Ventures Limited (Newmont) a wholly owned subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corporation, (NYSE: NEM) in respect of Solomon Gold’s copper gold exploration projects on the island of Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands (Koloula PL 02/05, Central PL03/05, Mbetilonga PL04/05, Sutakiki PL05/05, and Kuma PL08/05). The definitive agreement was signed on 4th March 2009.
The principle terms provide that Newmont may earn up to a 70% interest by expending US $12 million within 5 years in a two stage earn-in. Solomon Gold will act as manager for the first year of the program and Newmont may elect to manage the program thereafter. Newmont has seconded two of its geoscientists experienced in porphyry projects discovery and assessment in the South Pacific, to the project.
The Solomon Gold board considers Newmont’s interest in Guadalcanal Island as a significant demonstration of support for the prospectivity of Solomon Gold’s projects on Guadalcanal Island. Newmont is one of the world’s leading gold project development and operating companies, with considerable experience in the South West Pacific and Indonesia.
The program has commenced and a budget of US$2m set for the 12 months to 4th March 2010. The program is focussing on:
- Chupukama – extensive gold mineralisation and broad geophysical signatures suggest a porphyry copper gold core zone in Central Guadalcanal;
- Vurakara – Chikora- Mbina porphyry copper in the Koloula Valley on the South coast; and
- Kuma , also on the South coast, East of Koloula.
Solomon Gold continues to hold a 100% interest in the gold project on Fauro Island near Bougainville and nickel exploration tenements on Ngella Island in the Florida’s Group north of Honiara and on Eastern Guadalcanal.
In November 2009 the Company was granted PL 02/09 over 70km2 at Fauro Island in the north of Solomon Islands, immediately south of the border with Papua New Guinea and the island of Bougainville which hosts the giant Panguna copper gold porphyry project, owned by Bougainville Copper PL (the majority shareholder of which is Rio). The Fauro project has been the subject of an application for a PL by Solomon Gold for several years and the grant finalises a long period of successful landowner negotiations. Solomon Gold now adds the Fauro grant to an outstanding track record of land owner and regulatory liaison in Solomon Islands.
The project is over rocks similar in age to those at Bougainville and Lihir Island in Papua New Guinea, Projects which have yielded resource inventories of approximately 90 million ounces of gold equivalent. Previous exploration activities by other companies including BHP have included extensive surface sampling programs and trenching which have resulted in the identification of broad zones of gold mineralization and reconnaissance drilling programs which have confirmed the presence of persistent gold systems below the surface. The company will collect airborne electromagnetic and magnetic data over the area, in order to define subsurface resistors expected to indicate zones of gold drilling targets in silica pyrite altered zones in the volcanic host.
On 2 December 2009, the Company announced the acquisition of two Queensland (Australia) based gold exploration companies, Acapulco Mining Pty Ltd and Central Minerals Pty Ltd.
Acapulco Mining holds extensive exploration tenements and applications covering 1,344km2 over the historic Mt Perry and Normanby Goldfields in Queensland. There are significantly more targets and greater prospectivity at Mt Perry than at Normanby and accordingly Mt Perry will attract the bulk of the exploration focus in Acapulco from Solomon Gold. The mineralised target zones at Mt Perry extend over a 20km north-easterly corridor from Augustine West in the south west to the New Moonta mines in the north-east. Acapulco has conducted extensive airborne magnetic and electromagnetic surveys and detailed soil and rock chip sampling and mapping programs over the area. This has been followed up by drilling programs conducting first pass reconnaissance drilling on numerous targets. Solomon Gold has identified potential for the definition of more than 1m ounces of gold in the Chinaman's Creek system (part of the Mt Perry project area) which extends in a number of parallel mineralised shear and reef systems over a 5x3km zone.
Central Minerals holds exploration licences covering 3,670km2 over a strike length of 200km on the eastern margin of the Permian Triassic Bowen Basin in Central Queensland, approximately 200km south west of the Central Queensland port of Rockhampton. The project is based on the recognition by Central geologists of broad zones of low temperature gold bearing fragmented and silicified rocks at the sheared base of the Bowen Basin limestone and volcanic rich sediments on its eastern margin. The mineralisation is characterised by similar geochemical and structural features to those found in the prolific gold mining trends at Carlin and Battle Mountain in Nevada USA. Five prospects (Crunchie, Homestead, Kauffmans, Cracklin Rosie and Porcupine Pie) in the Rannes Central area have been subject to first pass drilling by Central and previous explorers with potentially economic intersections in all five.
It is the current intention of Solomon Gold to define a world class porphyry copper gold deposit with an overprinted high grade epithermal gold deposit and ultimately see it brought into production. Solomon Gold has access to the required exploration, development and financing skills to achieve this goal.
The high grade gold mineralisation encountered in the recent drilling at Sutakiki is characteristic of high grade gold deposits related to mineralised transform structures in Papua New Guinea and the Indonesian archipelago.
