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Mali is a stable, democratic country located in West Africa. Great Quest has the benefit of local expertise in the person of Mamadou Keita, one of the Company's directors. Mr. Keita has over 25 years of senior international mineral exploration experience that includes his role as chief geologist of the Kenieba Region for the Direction Nationale de la Geologie et des Mines of the Malian Ministere des Mines.
Over a period of eight years, Great Quest has optioned and currently holds 13 gold concessions in western Mali. These concessions all lie within a mineral-rich 25 by 200-kilometre belt in western Mali where 30 million ounces of gold resources have been discovered. Western Mali is considered a very favorable area for the discovery of additional gold deposits.
Great Quest's northern concessions, the Bourdala gold concessions (88 sq km) are located approximately 40 km southeast of the Sadiola gold mine. The Baroya gold concession (8 sq km) and the Kenieba gold concession (32 sq km) lie 53 to 68 kilometres south of the Bourdala concessions. The Company recently acquired the Comifa gold concession (8 sq km) north and west of the Kenieba concession. Great Quest also holds the Kenieti diamond concession in western Mali.
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GREAT QUEST METALS
EXPLORING FOR GOLD IN THE BIRIMIAN TREND
MALI, WEST AFRICA
"West Africa is the fastest growing gold producing region in the world, with historical producers like Ghana being joined over the past 10 years by the rapidly growing MALI. Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leonne and Senegal are about to join as well. With similar geology throughout the prolific and regionally extensive Birimian trend, the potential for new discoveries is clear. The success of MALI, with good geology and modernization of the mining code, combined with government support, has created a model for the rest of West Africa to copy. MALI, which modernized its mining code in 1991, has since placed six major mines into production and production has tripled over the past decade, thereby threatening the premier position of Ghana in West African gold production.
Many of the mines discovered in MALI, currently the fastest growing gold producer in West Africa, are large enough and the tax incentives generous enough that even majors, such as AngloGold Ashanti, are prepared to carry partial interests, especially if they are the operator. The synergy of junior exploration companies joining with majors to place new discoveries into production has been an extremely successful formula for speeding up and assuring the successful development and operation of new mines in the region.
Since gold production in West Africa is concentrated in the Birimian greenstone belt, we can legitimately regard it as a valid geological trend, as well as an identifiable political region, and allows us to make valid comparisons with Nevada. Although it stretches over a much larger area than the Carlin/Cortez belts, it shares many of its characteristics, such as multiple open pit zones in close proximity to each other and unrealized exploration and development potential at depth. To date, the only major underground mine in the newly developing areas of MALI, Senegal and Burkina Faso is the world class Loulo mine.
In terms of overall gold production, West Africa, in 2007, lies at a similar stage to the Carlin belt in the 1990's when deep, larger structures were discovered and placed into production, which caused a rapid escalation in annual production. In the case of West Africa, increases in gold production, in the short term, will be due to a large increase in new discoveries with open pit deposits, to be followed in later years by underground development. Such developments will be triggered by generous tax incentives, political stability and highly prospective geology."
Excerpt from "West Africa's Birimian Trend" an Article in African Mining Magazine, Nov-Dec 2007, by Reginald W. Ogden of Canaccord Capital Corporation, which carried the following notice:
This article is solely the work of the author for the private information of readers. Although the author is a registered investment advisor at Canaccord Capital Corporation, this is not an official publication of Canaccord Capital and the author is not a Canaccord Capital analyst. The views (including any recommendations) expressed in this article are those of the author alone, and not necessarily those of Canaccord Capital.
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