lations of banded iron formation (“BIF”), and which is sandwiched between two major BIF units that form prominent ridges. Free gold in saprolite is spatially associated with a zone of tourmaline-quartz veining and gold is often located close to BIF-schist contacts within the main tuff package. 

The Main Zone is open to the southeast, northwest and at depth with good evidence that gold mineralization extends beneath the 50 metre oxide layer in to the sulphide zone. Several deeper RC holes intersected fresh chlorite- sericite schist, which contained abundant pyrite, minor arsenopy- rite and pyrrhotite and free gold. Hole number PRC-109 intersected 1 metre at 33.4 g/t Au and hole 

number PRC-157 intersected 3 metres at 5.3 g/t Au. Both holes were stopped in mineralization for technical reasons at 57 metres and 89 metres respectively. 

## French Camp Zone 

RC drilling at the French Camp has confirmed gold in oxides over a minimum 480 metre strike length along a NW trending BIF- chlorite schist contact with grades and thickness of intersections comparable with the Main Zone. Recent geological mapping of the 5 km long French Camp Trend sug- gests that gold mineralization is associated with BIF-schist contact zones along the trend although tourmaline float is widespread but confined to areas underlain by chlorite schist with minor BIF. 

The geology of the CAR remains largely unstudied since the 1950’s and with the exception of AXMIN’s activities there has been no systematic exploration carried out in the modern era. AXMIN has recently identified a fourth Archean greenstone belt in the southeast of the country in an area of historic Colonial gold pro- duction. It is interesting to note that French Colonial geologists mapped this newly recognized belt as a Proterozoic terrane and AXMIN believes that other, as yet unrecognized, Archean greenstone belts exist in this under-explored country, which has a land surface area two thirds that of Tanzania. 

