Recent increases in the gold price, particularly in Australian dollar terms, have renewed interest in Geopacific Resources’ gold projects in Fiji and the company’s Board believes the time is now right to progress its highest potential prospects.
When Geopacific merged with World Wide Mining in 2013 the company became a regional explorer with an Asia Pacific focus – adding the Kou Sa project in Cambodia to its existing Fijian projects. Economic conditions then led the ASX-listed company to adopt a single project strategy focused on Kou Sa.
The experience of the Board and senior management team equips Geopacific with the capability and capacity to run projects concurrently and exploration at the Fijian projects will recommence while work at Kou Sa continues.
Exploration planning for the Fijian projects is under way following an extensive project review undertaken at the end of 2015. High-grade, near-surface gold has been identified along with epithermal gold zones with extensive strike potential.
Geopacific’s projects are on the two main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu and cover an area of about 63,000 hectares. The Nabila, Rakiraki, Sabeto and Vuda projects are in the highly prospective north-east trending zone that also hosts the world-class Vatukoula Gold Mine which has produced 6.9 million ounces of gold at 7.4 grams/tonne and has been in operation since 1933.
Geopacific’s managing director Ron Heeks said, “Fiji is home to world-class gold and significant copper projects. The political and social environment is excellent. Exploration on Geopacific’s projects is logistically simple, the most significant of which are located on or adjacent to main roads.
“In a time of rising gold prices and renewed interest in mining, it is appropriate that we advance our projects in Fiji to complement the Kou Sa Copper-Gold Project in Cambodia. The wet season commencing in Cambodia also present an opportune time to commence work during the Fijian dry season.”
Geopacific