Project :: Ziligai
Gold
KPO Mountain
The Ziligai prospect is located at the centre of the Gbarpolu concession in the Kpo Mountains but can only be accessed by way of a single 18 km footpath from Gblita Town. The general lack of accessibility has prevented many locals from returning to the isolated Ziligai artisinal mining area (historically the largest mining district in the entire Kpo region) since the end of the civil conflict.
Liberty geologists reported that the entire area had experienced extensive mining in the past, not only in the old stream beds but fully across the areas between the streams and up to the edge of the mountain where they stopped reportedly because of the hard ferrigenous duricrust, indicating that the area is a prime target in the Kpo Mountains for a source of gold mineralization.
The Ziligai Prospect is underlain by granitic and quartz-diorite gneiss in the lowland areas, over which lies the composite unit of quartzite, schist, amphibolites and iron formation (itabirite) forming the mountain ridges. The general trend of both lithologies ranges between 44º - 82º, dipping steeply to the northwest (>65º). Around the town of Zeligai, the area is underlain by greenstone and itabirite, which forms the southern portion of the Kpo Range.
These units are crosscut by quartz veins at various places. Rocks encountered thus far are weakly foliated, medium to coarse grained granitic gneiss, dark colored, medium-grained diorite, medium to fine grained mafic schist and iron-formation. The general strike of the formation is northeast-southwest and dip is steeply towards the northwest.
The regolith regimes of the area covered are predominantly ferruginous and residual with lesser amounts of depositional and erosional regimes.
Field observations show that gold mineralization is controlled by the lithological contact between the granite and granitic gneiss. Veinlets of quartz, itabirite iron formation (BIF), ultramafic greenstone rocks, and amphibolites have been intruded into the granite and granitic gneisses.
The main lithology which contains most of the potential anomalous soil zones is the mafic greenstone belt. There are many massive undisturbed quartz veins which contain visible gold in the same areas where artisanal work is ongoing. On the other hand, where the quartz veins are sheared, there are veinlets which are interbedded with the intensely sheared mafic schist. Most of this sheared mafic schist has been altered by hydrothermal fluids rich in carbonates and iron oxides. Generally, the carbonate-rich altered zones have elevated grades of gold throughout the Kpo Greenstone formation.
To date, a geochemical soil sampling grid has been completed on the Zeligai Prospect at 400m x 50m intervals. A very weak geochemical soil anomaly, which lies along the contact between the Northern Kpo Greenstone formation and the basal Archæan granite, has been identified.
To further investigate the strike of the greenstone belt for gold mineralization, it is recommended that an airborne geophysical IP survey be undertaken. A follow-up RAB (rotary air blast) drilling program would subsequently be proposed for prospective areas with geophysical anomalies and favorable geology.
The fieldwork statistics to date are listed in the table below.
| # of Stream Sediment Samples | # of Rock Chip Samples | # of Soil Samples |
| 14 | 2 | 1602 |