Kartuni Regional Block
Introduction
The Kartuni regional block consists of three large scale prospecting licenses totalling 56.6 sq mi. The Kartuni River area has recently been the subject of a comprehensive geochemical survey by the GGMC, which showed significant results.
Location and Access
The Kartuni River is a main branch of the Puruni River, located in north-central Guyana, south of the Cuyuni River and north of the Mazaruni River. The project area covers the entire drainage basin of the Kartuni River, and is surrounded by the GGMC Upper Puruni, Pashanamu, Morabisi North, Mara Mara and West Aurora Projects. When the Kartuni River is high, logistics are relatively easy, with road access to Million Mountain from Itibali or Georgetown, easy boat access to Payuka Falls, a short portage, then boat access to within 20 km of the headwaters, depending on the water level. In the dry season, boat access is difficult. A new road to Toroparu and a tractor trail beyond that now provides an alternative route to within 7 km of the headwaters (See Figure 5).
History
In 1846 Sir Robert Shomburke, the first government official to visit the Kartuni River, made a traverse along a trail from Chinese Landing on the Cuyuni River to the Kartuni. In 1868 Sawkins & Barrington- Brown traversed by boat up the Cuyuni to the Otomung River, then walked from the Ammamuri rapids to the Kartuni River, before making bark canoes, and traveling down the Kartuni, Puruni and Mazaruni back to Bartica.
A number of geological survey expeditions to the Kartuni area were carried out in the period 1948-1969, with access either from the Cuyuni or the Puruni. The earliest known detailed geological map of the area covers the northern part of the Kartuni, and extends north to the Cuyuni. Carter in 1961 made some traverses between the lower Kartuni and Puruni, while the geology of the Puruni River and the lower part of the Kartuni was mapped by Allderidge in 1959. The official 1:200,000 scale geological map of the Puruni SW quadrangle was compiled by Hawkes in 1961.
In 1963 Allen made a geological map of the Aurora complex, which included a summary of the northern part of the Kartuni. This work was incorporated by MacDonald in 1968, in a map summarizing geology and mineral occurrences in the Aurora area.
In 1968 EM and magnetic anomalies were followed up in the SE corner of the Kartuni area. Schielly in 1968 made a new geological map of the SE part of the Kartuni area, relying heavily on geophysical and air photo evidence, combined with detailed mapping in specific areas Work done on these areas included drainage sampling, grid soil sampling and geological mapping. Samples appear to have only been analyzed for Cu, Cr, Ni and Zn.
Recent Geologic Work and Primary Gold Potential
"In early 2002 an investigation was made of the Kartuni River area, to the north of the Puruni River. Work included regional multi-element geochemical sampling and geological mapping. Fieldwork showed that published drainage maps in this area contained several errors, particularly in the headwaters, which have been corrected in our digital database. Lower in the Kartuni drainage, some areas had been investigated in detail in the 1970’s by the UN, but higher in this drainage only a handful of people have previously visited the area.
Drainage geochemistry has resulted in the identification of a number of areas with high gold in stream sediment & BLEG samples. One area in the highest part of the Kartuni drainage contains 8 samples with 1.0-3.46ppm Au in –80# SS samples (INAA) and max 708ppb Au in BLEG samples. If thresholds are reduced slightly, 19 samples contain over 0.3ppm Au in one district 18km x 14km (E-W x N-S). Almost no pannable gold was seen at drainage sample sites, suggesting that gold is very fine grained. No significant gold assays were obtained from the few quartz vein samples in this area. The NW part of this area is anomalous for As (max 62ppm) and Sb (6ppm). Some drainages are also anomalous for Mo (max 8ppm).
The area with very high drainage Au geochemistry occurs just east of the N-S, presumably fault controlled zone of gneissose rocks. The geology in this zone consists predominantly of NW-SE trending basic and intermediate volcanics and volcaniclastics, with lenses of quartzite and phyllite. Locally metadiorite intrusions occur." (GGMC Geologic Services Division, 2002, Kartuni Project)
A solid body of reconnaissance level exploration work has been completed by the GGMC which suggest that certain areas of the Kartuni regional block are highly prospective for economic gold deposit(s).
Base Metal Potential
A number of other anomalous areas with less impressive gold geochemistry are located further downstream. In the NE of the project area one site also has a very high SS Pb anomaly (2548ppm). Only three out of 1900 stream sediment samples collected by GGMC to date in Guyana contain over 900ppm Pb; the rest all contain less than 65ppm. The other two high Pb SS samples are in the centre of the project area, where one sample has 2095ppm Pb with 0.9ppm Au, and the adjacent drainage has 940ppm Pb. The significance of these numbers is unknown; there is no associated Cu or Zn anomaly.
A large area at the east of the project has a consistent area Mo & Sb anomalous area, with a partly overlapping low level tungsten anomaly at the north end. This area includes the historic mineral occurrence of Bennetts workings, where diamonds were also reported. The source of the diamonds is not clear." (GGMC Geologic Services Division, 2002, Kartuni Project)
Kartuni Regional Block
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