MAEL LAMA PROJECT

The tungsten deposits of Mae Lama, in northern Thailand, west of Chiang Mai, near the border with Myanmar, are of the classic hydrothermal quartz-vein type, occupying tensional fractures in the margins of granitic intrusive bodies. The veins extend into the country rock and are also present in the marginal zones of the granitic intrusive.

The vein systems are accompanied by greisen reactions in the wall rock and there are hydrothermal alteration effects visible in the country rocks. Wolframite is dominant and occurs as sharp-edged crystal aggregates and blocks, sometimes reaching several centimetres in diameter. This mineralogical characteristic allows the wolframite to be cleanly separated from the quartz by relatively simple crushing and gravity concentration methods.

Drilling by the Company confirmed the presence of two well-mineralized vein systems, the main Mae Lama system and at a higher level and to the southwest, the Mae Hong Son system. The main vein system was well known to previous workers and the drilling confirmed location of its westward and downward extensions. The Mae Lama vein with a thickness of up to 1.5-2 metres is seen to have an east-west extent of about 700 metres and is mineralized to a depth of at least 200 metres.

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