Tanzam2000, a 100% owned subsidiary of TRX signed a JV agreement with the State Mining Company (“STAMICO”), a wholly owned entity of the Government of Tanzania, with regards to the Buckreef Gold Project. Through this JV agreement, a Tanzanian registered JV company, Buckreef Gold Company Limited (“BGC”), was formed with an equity holding of 55% Tanzam2000 and 45% STAMICO. STAMICO holds an interest in the Buckreef Gold Project on behalf of the Government of Tanzania. Under the agreement, TRX through its subsidiary, Tanzam2000, manages the Buckreef Project.
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Summary:
The Buckreef Gold Property consists of six gold deposits, namely the Buckreef, Eastern Porphyry, Anfield, Stamford Bridge, Tembo and Bingwa Deposits.
Buckreef
The Buckreef Deposit consists of three shear zone hosted mineralized zones (Main, South and North) distributed along a north-northeast to south-southwest trending shear zone within a sequence of mafic basalts and dolerites, near basement granite. A fourth mineralized zone, Buckreef West, is located 100 m to the west along a splay shear off the main mineralized shear zone.
The host rocks of the Buckreef Deposit consist primarily of pillowed, amygdaloidal and massive mafic meta-volcanic rocks that have been intruded by medium- to coarse-grained dolerite sills and dykes. Slivers of carbonaceous units have been observed in some drill core sections incorporated in the metavolcanic assemblages. Minor granitoids (possibly metasomatic) are noted in the north part of the Deposit towards the contact with the northern granite.
The Buckreef Main Zone has a strike length of 600 m and extends to at least 700 m below surface. The Main Zone is close to surface, fault-zone hosted and broadly northeast-trending, with an overall near-vertical dip to the northwest or southeast. Alteration within the fault zone is characterized by pervasive iron-carbonate alteration that has undergone multiple brittle fracturing and brecciation with multiple events of grey to white quartz veining. Pyrite occurs as disseminations and also as fracture emplacement associated with gold mineralization. Molybdenite is also present, mainly in association with carbonaceous metasedimentary units. Minor amounts of chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite and magnetite occur locally in drill core.
The Buckreef North Zone has a strike length of 250 m and extends to at least 400 m below surface. The North Zone is close to surface, fault-zone hosted, broadly north-northeast trending, with an overall steep to near-vertical dip. The alteration is dominated by silica-carbonate-sericite-sulphide (mainly pyrite) and related quartz-rich lode vein/breccia and tension fracture emplacement associated with gold mineralization. The host rock varies from mafic volcanic to felsic porphyry. The porphyry hosted mineralization tends to be wide/thick, however, generally low grade.
The Buckreef South Zone has a strike length of 250 m and extends to at least 150 m below surface. The South Zone occurs mainly close to surface, within the weathered zone, mainly in oxide and transitional material. It is fault-zone hosted, broadly northeast-trending, and carrot-shaped, with an overall steep to near-vertical southeast dip at shallow depths. Detailed grade control drilling established significantly wider mineralization widths.
Stamford Bridge Deposit
The Stamford Bridge Deposit occurs between the Buckreef Deposit to the west and the Eastern Porphyry Deposit to the East. The mineralization and associated alteration resembles the Buckreef Deposit.
In a press release dated October 24, 2024, the Company announced the discovery of a new gold mineralized shear zone, named Stamford Bridge, between the Buckreef Main Zone to the west and the Eastern Porphyry Zone to the east. The Stamford Bridge Deposit appears to be a sheared mineralized zone up to 1 km in length with geological characteristics like those found in the Buckreef Main Zone, specifically near-vertical mineralized shear zones with strong alteration. Pinching and swelling at Stamford has been observed in the drill core. Stamford appears to bridge the gap between the Buckreef Main Zone, where current operations are ongoing, and the sub-parallel Eastern Porphyry Zone to the east.
Anfield Deposit
The Anfield Deposit is located south-southeast along strike of the Eastern Porphyry Zone and ~500 m east of the Buckreef Main Zone. The geology of the Anfield Deposit is characterized by mafic units composed of dolerite and basalt, intruded by northeast to southwest trending felsic porphyry units. East-west and northeastsouthwest structures are prominent across the Anfield Deposit. In comparison, the Buckreef Main Zone is a shear zone hosted gold deposit within mafic basalts and dolerites, near basement granite.
Bingwa Deposit
The Bingwa Deposit is located at the northern margin of the RGB, adjacent to a sheared contact with a granitic intrusive and is ~4 km east of the Buckreef Deposit. Gold mineralization has been identified in a drilling program over a strike length of 350 m and up to 100 m below surface. Gold mineralization at Bingwa is associated with quartz veining in strongly foliated and altered greenstone in a shear zone adjacent to the granitoid contact. The shear zone strikes northeast and dips steeply to the northwest. The main zone of mineralization is associated with the junction of a northwest-striking, shallowly north-dipping fault and the northeast-striking shear zone.
Eastern Porphyry Deposit
The Eastern Porphyry Deposit is located ~500 to 750 m east of Buckreef, along a sub-parallel shear zone. The gold mineralization at Eastern Porphyry is associated with silicified and weakly pyritic shears, quartz veins and veinlets, and within quartz-feldspar porphyry.
The Eastern Porphyry structures occur within sheared basaltic lavas and medium grained dolerite intrusive of the northeast-southwest trending Nyamazama River lineament. The elongated intrusion attains a maximum thickness of 280m, but thins and disperses to the northeast and southwest into a series of relatively narrow quartz-feldspar-porphyry dykes.
The Eastern Porphyry mineralization is associated with silicified and weakly pyritised shears, quartz veins and veinlets, and within quartz-feldspar porphyry. Quartz veining within the felsic unit may contain pyrite with or without low grade mineralization. However, zones of shearing within the dolerite up to 7m in width are associated with silica-carbonate-pyrite alteration. The mineralization has a total strike length of approximately 1,500m. The main intrusion is coincident with a circular magnetic anomaly in the area with a diameter of 350m (Barrett, 2000). In places the quartz-feldspar porphyry is magnetite bearing, readily deflecting a hand magnet.
The gold mineralization occurs in a similar lithological and structural setting as at Buckreef Prospect, but the intensive carbonate-silica-pyrite alteration typical of the Buckreef deposit is lacking or poorly developed. The fact that mineralization on the Nyamazama River lineament is less well developed than at Buckreef may be due to less dilation of the northeast-southwest shear compared to that of Buckreef Prospect or the presence of the porphyry intrusion which inhibited fluid flow and was less chemically reactive than the basalt.
Tembo Deposit
The Tembo Deposit is located ~3 km southwest of Buckreef Mine, adjacent to the main RSZ. The mineralized zones at Tembo are confined to the east-west trending shears within metabasalt volcanic package. Alteration in the mineralized zones consists of silica-carbonate-pyrite with wellpreserved shear fabric.
Gold mineralization is associated with grey quartz thin veins, stringers and boudins parallel to the shear fabric. At Tembo Deposit, the transported and residual soil cover is 7 to 9 m deep, below which completely altered and sheared mafic material occurs to a depth of 50 m. Most of the oxidized zone has been subject to artisanal mining.