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Gold Mines

ELENILTO MINERALS & MINING owns gold, copper, iron ore, chrome, titanium, bauxite, manganese and other minerals exploration and mining licenses in Africa and Europe and has a more than 100 exploration and mining projects with over 10,000,000 sq.m. for Gold and other minerals in Tanzania, Ghana, Liberia and Albania varying stages of progress, several of which are highly prospective for significant economical ore deposits.

Gold mining in Liberia dates back to the 1920's, though references of the gold recovery were made as early as the 1860's.

A production record of 30.833 troy ounces was reached in 1943. Production however dropped significantly when the miners abandoned the gold fields and went instead to the search for diamonds. This downward trend continued until the 1960's when production picked up again and gold exports rose to 5,025 troy ounces in 1967.

Production figure for the period between 1971 and 1978 are not available at present. From information gathered it is believe that the production of gold was consistent with the 60s. Thereafter production dropped again and then steadily increased to 16,868 troy ounces in 1981. Production peaked again in 1989 when 23,585 ounces were produced.

Placer mining operations (for gold and diamonds) are not systematic, as such; this results to very low recovery, which normally renders alluvial mining operations uneconomic.

The placers occur in Precambrian greenstone belts. Some placers are products of prolonged weathering and erosion of small deposits.

The gold is generally concentrated in the lower part of the gravel or on the decomposed bedrock locally called "chalk".

There are many indications of secondary deposits of gold yielding 3.5 grams or more per cubic yard of gravel with a purity rate of between 90 and 98 per cent. These deposits occur in such as Bokon Gedeh, Tapita, Bella Yellah, the Bie Mountain, Silver Hill and Kokoya.

Abundant gold deposits are typically associated with greenstone belts of the cartons, where they are related to major structures and can occur in a variety of different rock types. A number of gold occurrences have already been noted in rocks associated with banded iron formations. Birimian rocks in the eastern part of the country from prime hosts for structurally controlled gold mineralization of the type found in adjacent countries. Alluvial gold deposits are widespread in rivers draining gold bearing bedrock and eluvial (in situ) deposits; these deposits are known to occur in highly weatherd lateritic soils where small nuggets typically form.