Zarkashan Copper/Gold

Location

• Located approximately 225km SSW of Kabul in the Ghazni Province. Ghazni city (population: c. 141,000) is approximately 93km north of the project area

exploration

• The German Geological survey conducted a reconnaissance survey in the mid-1960’s. The Soviets and the Afghanistan Geological Survey (AGS) conducted exploration in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Recently the USGS completed its assessment of the mineral potential in Afghanistan. USGS work included:
• Ongoing compilation of historic German and Soviet mapping, geophysics data, drilling and sampling data, and incorporation into a GIS database using ESRI products;
• Airborne gravity, radiometric and magnetic surveys and analysis; and
• Remote sensing: Hyperspectral, ASTER, Landsat
• There are many ancient open pit and underground workings that show that this area has been mined in the past. The grades obtained by the Soviet and AGS exploration team show that the skarn mineralisation has a core of relatively high gold grades with a halo of lower grades

geology and mineralisation

• The two licences are centred on the large Zarkashan intrusive and the surrounding sedimentary rocks. The Zarkashan intrusive consists of quartz monzonite, granodiorite and quartz syenite
• Copper and gold mineralization in the Zarkashan licence area is associated with skarn alteration at the contact between the Zarkashan intrusive and the Triassic and Cretaceous limestone
• The copper minerals are predominately chalcopyrite with lesser chalcocite and bornite. Gold occurs as free gold. Other minerals include sphalerite, tetradymite (Bi-Te mineral), native Bi or bismite, pyrrhotite and sparse molybdenite

Infrastructure

• Road access to the site from Kabul is on Highway A01, which is a paved highway
• Power can potentially be brought in from the nearby grid at Ghazni or a dedicated self-supplied source
• There is no identified water source in the licence area, however the project area is situated between the Tarnak and Arghandab Rivers and, although there are no perennial streams, there are some large ephemeral streams