The Inlice project is located 30 kilometres west-south-west of the city of Konya and 230 kilometres south of Ankara. Discovered in a roadside outcrop (Fig. 1) by Stratex Madencilik General Manager Bahri Yildiz, Inlice was the first of twenty plus hydrothermal alteration zones recognised by Stratex in the Konya volcanic belt.

The Inlice project is hosted by the rocks of Upper Miocene to Pliocene age (12 - 3 million years old) that outcrop in the Erenlerdagi (Konya) Volcanic Belt. The immediate host rocks of the gold mineralization at Inlice are relatively massive homogenous andesitic volcanic rocks forming a dome complex. Andesitic tuffs and agglomerates have been recorded in the wider licence area.

The gold mineralization occurs in steeply dipping silica replacement "ledges" of the Ana Zone (Fig.2) which cross-cut the andesitic volcanic host rock. They are typical of high-sulphidation epithermal systems that formed from very low-pH (highly acidic) fluids.

 

Figure 1. Quickbird image of the Inlice prospect.

Figure 2. Silica zone near west end of Ana East - outcrop approx. 4 m high. Average gold content c.8 g/t.

Stratex has now defined a JORC-compliant resource of 262,300 oz gold (Table. 1) which is hosted by the Ana Zone, 98,300 oz of which is in oxide material.

 

Table 1. Inlice Reource Statement

Category	Tonnes	Grade (g/t Au)	Gold (oz)
Measured - All	327,036	2.90	30,500
Indicated - All	1,503,524	2.62	127,000
Inferred - All	1,979,827	1.20	76,500
Total - All	3,810,387	1.91	234,000
Measured - OXIDE	327,036	2.90	31,000
Indicated - OXIDE	307,331	2.06	20,000
Inferred - OXIDE	310,128	1.89	19,000
Total - OXIDE	944,495	2.29	70,000
Indicated - SULPHIDE	1,196,193	2.77	107,000
Inferred - SULPHIDE	1,669,699	1.07	57,000
Total - SULPHIDE	2,865,892	1.78	164,000
Indicated - TALUS (OX.)	205,673	1.06	7,000
Inferred - TALUS(OX.)	1,141,301	0.58	21,300
Total - TALUS (OX.)	1,346,974	0.65	28,300

 

Under the terms of a joint-venture production agreement with private Turkish company NTF, NTF has been funding scoping and pre-feasibility studies on the Inlice project, which is currently being undertaken by leading Nevada-based engineering and metallurgical consultancy Kappes, Cassiday & Associates. KCA has a strong track record of taking multiple heap-leaching gold and silver projects into production and both Stratex and NTF are confident that KCA’s expertise is appropriate to fast-tracking the development of Inlice. The feasibility study will be completed in Q4 2010 subject to a successful outcome. This will be followed by mine construction, with the first gold pour at Inlice scheduled for end-2011.

The locations of drillholes to date are shown in Fig. 3 with schematic sections illustrating the geometry of the gold mineralization in Figs. 4 and 5.

 

Figure 3. Inlice: geology and drill hole locations. Gold-bearing silica ledges shown in red.

 

Figure 4. Summary cross-section of drill holes INDD-18 and INDD-37, Ana West.

Figure 5. Summary cross-section of drill holes INDD 1, 9, 23 and 26.

 

Preliminary Metallurgical Testwork

Preliminary bench-scale metallurgical test-work was completed in early 2007 by Wardell Armstrong International on four samples using cyanide leach of finely ground material (<125 microns). The one oxide sample, grading 2.92 g/t Au, gave an excellent recovery of 95% of the contained gold over a 48-hour period. Subsequent bottle roll tests of coarse oxide material (<12 mm) confirmed exceptionally rapid recoveries, with 92.6% of the gold being recovered within one day, suggesting that the gold would be readily recoverable by heap-leach methods. Recoveries from three finely ground sulphide samples over a 48-hour period ranged from 21% to 28%, with slightly lower recoveries recorded from bottle-roll leaching of coarse material. Further metallurgical work is now underway as part of the feasibility study being funded by NTF.