Pampana (139km²)

Significant hard rock gold mine potential at Pampana

• Two contiguous EPLs, North & South Pampana, totalling 139km²
• Drill targets defined beneath high grade zones at Yirisen gold project with best trench intersect of 6.4m@23g/t
• Total observed strike of Yirisen gold project extends over 3.75km and remains open
• Aggressive 5,000-10,000m drill programme planned at Yirisen, Q1 2004
• Principle historic 'gold rush' mining district
• Crustal scale shear zones link main targets

Overview

The Pampana Exclusive Prospecting Licences (EPLs) lie 150km east of Freetown and cover an area of 139km², at the southern end of the Sula Mountains greenstone gold belt. Gold targets exist within an extensive zone of imbricated tectonic rock slices at the intersection of four crustal scale shear zones. Historically the Pampana River and its tributaries supported some of the richest alluvial gold workings in the Sula Mountains. Structural features known to host gold and base metal mineralization are exposed within the Pampana EPLs.

Yirisen Project (North Pampana EPL)

Yirisen is Mano's most advanced gold project in Sierra Leone, historic work returning a best trench intersect of 6.4m@23g/t> Au, as described in the news release of 11th September 2003 (http://www.manoriver.com/mano/investor/nr/nr0318_11sep.pdf). The Yirisen gold system, as defined by a combination of mapped sites of in situ mineralization, artisanal workings and soil geochemical anomalies, trends north-northeast with a current inferred strike length of 3.75 km, open in both directions. Independent consultants ACA Howe International Ltd report from a recent visit to Yirisen that several bands of high-grade gold mineralization occur over a total width of up to 200m. Artisanal workings, extending to depths of up to 5m, confirm that gold is not solely restricted to the high-grade veins and that within both the oxide and sulphide zones, is partially free milling.

Mano's geological field crews have been mobilised to the Yirisen camp, with a surface exploration programme now underway aimed at verifying previous sampling carried out by the Geological Survey of Sierra Leone, the Northern Province Prospecting Venture and the UN. Much of the historic trench and channel sampling was selective in nature, with disseminated mineralization between high grade zones of veining and sulphides appearing to have not been adequately tested, despite reports by local miners that gold is won from this material. The current sampling will enable an aggressive first phase drilling programme to be designed to thoroughly test the mineralization and permit the estimation of a preliminary resource. It is anticipated that this drill programme will, subject to the availability of finance, comprise 5,000 to 10,000m of diamond core drilling to be undertaken in the first quarter of 2004. Given the potential scale of the Yirisen project, it is envisaged that up to three rigs may be mobilised in the initial drilling programme.

Three sets of historic data have been integrated into Mano River's Geographical Information System (GIS) of the Pampana district that includes satellite imagery, structural analysis and mapping. The historic results are detailed below.

1. Geological Survey of Sierra Leone - 1958

   Hard rock gold mineralization was first noted at Yirisen by the Geological Survey of Sierra Leone in 1958 as part of a programme of mapping and sampling of the country's major hard rock artisanal gold mines. The Survey identified seven north easterly trending sub-vertical lodes of gold mineralised quartz veining, averaging 150m in length. Sampling by the Survey returned numerous gold intersections in trenches, the results being listed in Table 1 below.

   Table 1.

   Campaign	Lode / Trench	Width (m)	Grade g/t Au
   Survey '58	1N	0.99	10.10
   Survey '58	1S	0.79	23.11
   Survey '58	2N	0.91	7.65
   Survey '58	2midN	0.81	16.84
   Survey '58	2midS	0.79	5.51
   Survey '58	2S	0.86	3.21
   Survey '58	3N	0.48	0.23
   Survey '58	3midN	0.86	1.22
   Survey '58	3midS	2.69	20.97
   Survey '58	3S	2.74	4.13
   Survey '58	4N	2.29	44.08
   Survey '58	4midN	2.36	15.92
   Survey '58	4mid	6.38	22.96
   Survey '58	4midS	5.28	24.80
   Survey '58	4S	2.08	4.90
   Survey '58	4SE	1.22	0.77
   Survey '58	5N	0.61	3.52
   Survey '58	5mid	0.69	83.27
   Survey '58	5S	1.40	7.04
   Survey '58	6	1.47	10.10
   Survey '58	7N	1.37	20.97
   Survey '58	7midN	5.46	8.72
   Survey '58	7midS	5.46	9.18
   Survey '58	7S	0.46	30.61
   UN '83	Trench 1	3.00	6.67
   UN '83	Trench 2W	1.00	4.54
   UN '83	Trench 2E	2.50	4.29
   UN '83	Trench 3	1.00	1.50
   UN '83	Trench 4	1.00	0.42
   UN '83	Trench 5W	7.50	1.36
   UN '83	Trench 5mid	5.00	2.31
   UN '83	Trench 5E	2.60	1.58
   UN '83	Trench 6W	1.60	5.38
   UN '83	Trench 6E	1.00	1.00

2. Northern Province Prospecting Venture (NPPV) - mid 1960s

   In the mid 1960s the NPPV undertook mapping, soil geochemical surveying, trenching and drilled three holes at Yirisen giving the results listed in Table 2 below.

   Table 2.

   Hole	From	To	Intercept	Au (g/t)	Ag (g/t)
   K-1	86.04	86.72	0.67	5.51	74.69
   K-1	89.18	89.69	0.51	24.49	277.96
   K-1	92.35	92.74	0.38	7.65	42.55
   K-1	95.39	95.48	0.09	7.96	94.29
   K-2	159.03	159.11	0.08	14.69	22.96
   K-3	11.53	11.84	0.30	4.90	46.53
   K-3	28.37	28.73	0.36	3.37	102.55
   K-3	33.45	33.78	0.33	31.53	221.94
   K-3	41.20	41.30	0.10	3.98	7.96
   K-3	57.61	57.99	0.38	11.63	7.35
   K-3	63.60	63.96	0.36	0.31	0.92

   Mano River considers it significant that drill hole K-1 shows narrow high grade intercepts occurring over a drilled width of some 20m. The distribution of results from the drill holes suggests that only zones containing visible gold may have been sampled, while the host rock material between these intercepts which contains pervasive sulphide mineralization and possible disseminated gold mineralization appears to have not been sampled. Based on maps prepared by NPPV, it is considered likely by Mano River that drill hole K-2 was collared too far east of the deposit to have intersected the zone of mineralization.

3. United Nations Revolving Fund (UNRF) - mid 1980s

   Between December 1984 and May 1987 the United Nations Revolving Fund (UNRF) for Natural Resources Exploration undertook an extensive regional programme of gold exploration in the Pampana district of the southern Sula Mountains. The programme was designed to identify the source rocks of the alluvial gold being mined extensively by artisanal miners. Stream sediment sampling (1,087 samples), soil sampling (2,474 samples), topographic surveying, mapping, pitting and trenching were undertaken. Following verification of stream sediment anomalies, two areas namely, Yirisen and Masamank (South Pampana EPL), were targeted for detailed soil sampling with a total of 1,477 sample sites.

   At Yirisen soil sampling grids were extended 2.5km north-eastward from the northern limit of known gold mineralization. Two anomalous gold zones were defined by a 50 parts per billion (ppb) gold in soil contour. The most southerly anomaly is comprised of three parallel mineralised trends, the most easterly of which continues for 700m from the mapped extent of the Yirisen deposit. Some 1,200m north-east of the known mineralization a second 1,500m long by 200m wide gold anomaly extends along the contact between amphibolite and talc schist lithologies. A second grid, 400m east of the main Yirisen grid at Kalmoro, identified a 750m long by 500m wide northeast trending anomalous gold zone, parallel to the trend of the Yirisen gold system.

   The Yirisen project has many hallmarks of a potentially significant gold deposit. Certain parallels in terms of the style and extent of shear zone hosted mineralization can already be drawn with Mano River's KGL gold deposit (located approximately 350km south east) in western Liberia, where an initial gold resource of 610,000 ounces (indicated and inferred) at an average 4.8 grams per tonne (g/t) has been defined.

South Pampana EPL

In February 2003, Mano River reported grab sample gold results as displayed in Table 3 below of up to 4.5 g/t gold taken from quartz veins within a zone of strongly folded ultramafics in the South Pampana EPL, from a phase-1 reconnaissance survey 3km east of the town of Massamank, 10km southwest of Yirisen and in a area of active artisanal gold workings. Satellite imagery and UNDP mapping indicates the mineralization encountered in the South Pampana EPL lies within the same lithostructural unit as the Yirisen deposit.

Table 3.

Gold is considered to be derived from sericitic quartz vein lodes and tourmaline bearing pegmatites, the host rock being predominantly sheared ultramafic rocks, now serpentinites and (talc-) tremolite schists. In many other schist belt gold deposits in West Africa, for instance at Mano's KGL and Weaju projects in Liberia, the host rock is also a strongly sheared, mylonitised and therefore silicified talc-tremolite schist.

Mano considers that Yirisen target represents a potentially significant gold deposit in terms of size and grade, and that further gold targets are likely to exist within Pampana due to the favourable geological and structural setting

Project Maps:

Location of Pampana EPLs, Sierra Leone	LandSat image of the Pampana district	North & South Pampana EPLs
Yirisen geochemical extensions	Yirisen gold project	Summary map of the Yirisen Project