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Alice Queen enters the Ring of Fire in Fiji with eyes on gold

Last updated: 13:15 22 Jun 2022 AEST, First published: 12:06 22 Jun 2022 AEST

Alice Queen enters the Ring of Fire in Fiji with eyes on gold
Alice Queen managing director Andrew T Buxton (second from left), executive director Dale McCabe (third from left) and in-country manager, Tausia Kerta (right).

The Ring of Fire is a 40,000-kilometre-long, horseshoe-shaped chain of belts, volcanic arcs and oceanic trenches that extend from the tip of Chile up to Alaska, encircling the entire Pacific Ocean from Japan down through the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.

The Ring of Fire.

A vast majority of the Earth’s most violent earthquakes occur here, alongside more than 450 volcanoes.

The geological forces that have defined the Ring’s many mountain ranges and island archipelagos have also given rise to numerous prolific mineral systems around the Pacific Basin.

These mineral systems host many of the world’s most productive deposit types, including epithermal gold, copper porphyry and volcanic massive sulphides (VMS).

Many of the nations located along this chain host massive amounts of mineral resources and have become major mining jurisdictions.

Gold mining in Viti Levu

The Ring of Fire’s mineral wealth has not been lost on Fiji, especially on the archipelago’s largest island, Viti Levu, which hosts gold, zinc and copper deposits.

Mining in Fiji dates back to the 1930s, starting from the Vatukoula gold mine on Vitu Levu.

Vatukoula is still in operation as a significant contributor to Fiji’s economy, producing more than seven million ounces of gold to date.

Viti Levu has attracted some of the world’s largest miners, including Newcrest Mining Ltd and Mitsubishi Minerals Ltd, which have a joint venture partnership in one of the largest undeveloped copper resources in the world, the Namosi project.

This major copper-gold porphyry deposit has reported proven and probable reserves of 5.2 million ounces of gold and 4.9 million tonnes of copper at a grade of 0.12 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 0.37% copper; in addition to indicated resources of 6.2 million ounces of gold and 6.2 million tonnes of copper at 0.11 g/t gold and 0.35% copper.

Suffice to say, this is fertile ground and with the larger companies, come the small explorers.

There are further reasons for the attraction: a supportive, pro-mining government, a positive regulatory framework based on British mining law (5% gross profit royalty and 20% corporate tax structure), established infrastructure and a long history of mining activity.

Fiji is also resilient.

“While the other industries suffered the effects of the pandemic, the mining and mineral exploration sector has seen notable investment at the Vatukoula Gold Mines (AIM:VGM) Ltd (VGML) through sinking of a new shaft and construction of a new tailing dam,” Mineral Resources Department acting director Raymond Mohammed said.

During this time, VGML maintained its weekly export of gold and silver and set itself up for continued growth.

“We currently have eight active mining leases and 31 exploration licences whereby with exploration, the number is bound to increase because of the two licences that have been recently awarded and five applications that we are currently processing.

“For mining, the companies that are operating in Fiji have committed a lot of capital investment in the projects.

“The sector has the potential to be able to support the government in economic recovery, especially during this unprecedented time so we are working with the active mining leases to be able to explore any new business development opportunities and also to ramp up production given the favourable economic conditions.”

One Australian company that is well-positioned to play a significant role in Fiji is Alice Queen Ltd (ASX:AQX).

Heavy lifting at Sabeto Project

Alice Queen has been doing some heavy lifting in Fiji through its recently registered, 100%-owned company, Alice Exploration Pte Limited.

The company recently applied for the Sabeto Project on Vitu Levu, which is 6.5 kilometres to the west of Lion One Metals Ltd (TSX-V:LLO)’s Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Project.

Lion One caught the attention of investors earlier this month after discovering a major new gold feeder structure – 20.86 g/t gold over 75.9 metres at depth beneath the current resource at Tuvatu.

Tuvatu is in development with 658,600 ounces in resource and a significant upgrade expected.

Sabeto location.

Importantly for Alice Queen, Sabeto is on a major regional geophysical anomaly (radiometrics and magnetics) similar to Tuvatu, while Lion One’s success has encouraged Alice Queen to upgrade the Sabeto prospect as it looks for similar results.

The proximity of Lion One’s project to Alice Queen’s gives the company confidence that its decision to move into this region of Fiji was the right one.

“We have always viewed Fiji as one of the world’s great gold addresses and this recent news from our next door neighbour Lion One Metals, reinforces our decision to pursue exploration opportunities in this underexplored jurisdiction,” Alice Queen’s managing director Andrew Buxton said.

“We have been very lucky that throughout the COVID pandemic, our fantastic in-country team led by our exploration manager Melvyn Levrel and country manager Tausio Kerta have been able to continue working, thus keeping our portfolio moving forward,” Andrew Buxton continued.

Viani and Nabila prospects

Alice Queen has also finalised the acquisition of two Special Prospecting Licences from its local partner Viti Mining.

The transfer has been endorsed by the Mineral Resources Department, with the most prominent prospect, Viani SPL1513, being a highly prospective low sulphidation epithermal (LSE) prospect with a significant historic soil geochemical anomaly (4 kilometres long), open to the northwest.

This prospect was highly recommended by historic explorer JICA-MMAJ, which discovered the high-grade Hishikari gold mine in Japan (LSE). The recommendation came after JICA confirmed mineralisation over a 700-metre strike length.

The prospect remains fully open and only one target out of five has been drilled to date.

A second prospect, Nabila SPL1514, hosts the discovery prospect of Faddy’s and historic artisanal Mistry’s Mine, connected by a 2-kilometre-long gold anomaly corridor.

Alice Queen believes the gold anomaly has not been fully tested at depth nor along strike. SPL1514 hosts quartz-carbonate-clay polymetallic breccia with numerous sub-surface indicators of a much larger system probably extending over several kilometres.

While Alice Queen secures its expansion opportunities, Sabeto is a key focus.

More about Sabeto

The Sabeto Prospect was previously held by Emperor Gold Mines (EGM – now Vatukoula Gold Mines (AIM:VGM) - and Geopacific Resources Ltd (ASX:GPR) and is just 6.5 kilometres from the Tuvatu Lion One adit and its future plant which is under construction.

Only light exploration has been undertaken to date, with the prospect loosely interpreted as an alkalic-type system.

Alkalic-type epithermal gold deposits are among the largest epithermal gold deposits in the world and considered a subset of low-sulphidation epithermal deposits.

Once the licence is granted Alice Queen is looking at carrying out a two-phase approach. Phase one would include:

  • an extensive geological mapping program; and
  • reprocessing historical geophysical data (ZTEM).

As a second phase, Alice Queen would likely look to emulate the CSAMT Survey, a process that has been instrumental for Lion One in targeting the ‘deep-feeder zone’ at Tuvatu.

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