Exploration projects

Crew has interest in two exploration projects: WA, Ghana and Glover Island, Canada.

The Wa Property - Ghana

The Wa property is located in NW Ghana about 530 km from the capital city of Accra. The Corporation’s rights relating to the property were acquired when the Corporation acquired Guinor. The Corporation has secured renewal of the three prospecting licenses which cover highly prospective Birimian greenstone host rocks where gold mineralization typically occurs as disseminations, stockworks and veins within the greenstones. The renewal applications comprise a total of three prospecting licenses for the Julie, Colette, and Josephine areas, each of approximately 150 km2.

Exploration work

Over 28,000 reconnaissance and infill geochemical samples have been collected on the property and this work identified several high-value gold anomalies in an east-west oriented, 30 km by 10 km greenstone formation. Follow-up trenching, RAB and RC drilling further delineated the Julie, Colette and Josephine targets. A 6,000 m drilling program was planned on the Julie and Colette prospects to verify the resource potential in the Julie and Colette zone by the Corporation’s joint-venture partner. The partner, however, withdrew from the agreement in early 2006 and the property was returned undivided to the Corporation. In 2007, Crew completed it preliminary technical assessment of the Wa project properties, and the findings largely confirm earlier exploration results, which warrants continued follow up.  Previous exploration programs in the prospects have included airborne geophysical surveys, regional and detailed soil geochemistry programs, geological mapping, trenching and drilling.  Earlier programs were primarily carried out by Kenor AS’s exploration team during 1996 to 2003.

The Julie target is an East-West trending zone, with a strike length of about 6 km and 45 degrees dip to the north, with shear-hosted gold mineralization along a granite/basalt contact. A 100 m x 100 m soil geochemical sampling and trenching program exposed a shear zone of 80-100 metres in width with mineralized lenses of 5 to 20 metres in width. A subsequent 3,600 metre drill program allowed the outlining of an inferred resource of around 300,000 oz of gold recognized to 30 metres in depth. Preliminary testing has shown that the ore is not refractory and responds well to conventional leaching. Twelve additional trenches and a complementary geochemical survey’s have confirmed the continuity of the mineralization in the apparently richer, eastern segment and outlined a 1.5 km further extension towards the west. The structure appears to be open along the strike and down dip.

The Colette target, located 50 km east of Wa, also features a strong geochemical signature but appears to be geologically more complex than Julie.  The area is covered with quartz scree and colluvium, making the evaluation of this zone difficult. There appears to be at least two shear zones totalling more then 5 km of strike with numerous crosscutting faults. Results from shallow trenching have revealed anomalous sections greater than 10 metres in thickness. The highest gold intersections reported are 8 m @ 3.5 g/t, 14 m @ 1.2 g/t and 13 m @ 3.7g/t.

The Josephine target, located 25 km southeast of Wa, is a gold-bearing arsenopyrite occurrence with mineralization occurring at the contact aureole between schists and granite within. This has been interpreted as granitic roof facies in the basic volcanics. The prospect is large with the geochemical anomaly extending over 15 km. Trenching of areas to the north of the anomaly has returned promising gold results.

Permits were renewed by the Ghanaian Minerals Commission based on the USD 1 million exploration budget submitted to it. Exploration work involved further trenching, mapping and surface sampling. The old database and historic data were recovered and compiled into a combined new database. The total area of the claims is over 300km2.

The work performed indicated that while there was a significant resource possibility it would not be sufficient to support a full operation.

Recent developments

The Corporation entered into negotiations with a neighbouring exploration company to combine the properties. The negotiation was finalised with Azumah Resources Limited (“Azumah”) in early 2009, whereby they will be able to earn up to a 100% interest in the Wa property by performing the exploration work required under the permits. Crew will receive an increasing number of Azumah shares depending on the success of the exploration program and a royalty based on ounces produced.