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Bui Gold Belt
Location
The Bui Belt is a 10-25 km-wide, 150 km-long gold belt located on the western border of Ghana where it extends to the SW into Côte d'Ivoire. It is located north of, and parallel to, the larger Sefwi Gold Belt, which currently hosts 28 million ounces of gold. The Bui Belt is sandwiched between the sedimentary Maluwe Basin to the north and the Sunyani Basin to the south.
Background
In the 1960's several Russian teams conducted systematic regional exploration and the first geological maps were produced. In 1992, a joint German-Ghanaian mapping program improved upon the existing mapping work. Concurrently at that time, the BRGM undertook some regional stream sediment sampling and this was again repeated by Santa Fe Pacific Gold with localised exploration efforts on Birimian targets.
Geology
The Bui Belt is defined by a NE-SW trending syncline of Tarkwaian metasediments. These have a maximum width of 17km in the north and narrow to 5km in the south of the belt. The eastern and western limbs of the syncline could be defined as the principal geological features of the belt and these comprise of mostly vertically-dipping silicified conglomerates, grits and quartzite packages which are expressed as prominent elongated ridges. The Tarkwaian metasediments can be stratigraphically correlated for hundreds of kilometres and can be correlated favourably with portions of the Tarkwaian stratigraphy defined at Tarkwa Mine in southern Ghana. The total thickness is estimated to be 9,000 meters, which is more than 3 times thicker than the comparable units observed in the Tarkwa District.
The margins of the Tarkwaian syncline with the enveloping Birimian rocks of the Sunyani and Maluwe Basins have been thrusted and sheared. The Birimian stratigraphy comprises of lightly metamorphosed argillites, wackes, volcaniclastics and volcanics through which trend multiple, large and parallel, NE-oriented sheared corridors of deformation.
The area covered by the Bui Belt has a low population density, making it conducive to mining exploration. Power lines crisscross the region and recently in September 2007 the President of Ghana opened construction of the Bui Hydroelectric Dam. This will see 400 Megawatts of power being generated in the region by 2012.
Birim Goldfields was drawn to the region by the potential of the Tarkwaian sediments and has over time undertaken regional and systematic exploration across the entire Bui Belt with specific attention being given to both Tarkwaian and Birimian gold targets.
