- Travis Schwertfeger appointed Liberty non-executive director
- Six years of Guyana exploration experience strengthens Oko focus
- Maiden mapping and sampling already underway at project
Special Report: Liberty Metals has added some serious Guiana Shield know-how to its board with the appointment of Many Peaks Minerals founder and managing director Travis Schwertfeger as a non-executive director.
Travis has more than 25 years of gold and copper exploration and development experience across South America, Africa, North America and Australia.
Liberty Metals (ASX:LIB) sees Travis’ West African experience as particularly relevant to Oko, with the Birimian greenstone belts once part of the same geological terrane as Guyana’s Guiana Shield before the Atlantic Ocean opened.
Travis joins the company just five days after it started geological mapping, structural interpretation and surface sampling across the two Oko blocks.
Local crews are preparing to collect about 5000 soil samples, with priority anomalies to be followed by detailed mapping, trenching and reconnaissance sampling before maiden drill targets are selected.
Liberty director and non-executive chair Nicholas Katris said it was rare to find a geologist with genuine, on-ground Guyanese gold experience who had spent six years operating in-country.
“Travis has spent his career in the greenstone belts on either side of the Atlantic, the same geology that hosts Oko North and Oko South, and his appointment materially strengthens the Board as we advance our maiden exploration campaign in the Oko district,” Katris said.
StockTake: Liberty kicks off maiden gold hunt in Guyana’s Oko district
Guyana experience meets Oko campaign
Travis spent six years leading exploration in Guyana as managing director of Alicanto Minerals (ASX:AQI), working across the Arakaka and Ianna gold projects in the country’s Northwest Mining District.
During that period, AQI secured a US$10 million earn-in joint venture with Barrick Gold over Arakaka, followed by another earn-in transaction with Nordgold.
He also spent more than seven years with Newmont Mining Corporation in exploration and production roles across West Africa and Australia, and served as a director of Exore Resources before its 2020 acquisition by Perseus Mining.
Travis is also the founder and current managing director of Côte d’Ivoire-focused explorer Many Peaks Minerals (ASX:MPK), where he led the acquisition and rapid advancement of the Ferké gold project through to a maiden resource at the Ouarigue prospect.
Oko projects
LIB secured an option earlier this month to acquire a 90% interest in the Oko North and Oko South projects.
The two projects comprise 40 granted mining permits covering about 180km2, with Oko North directly abutting ground now consolidated under G Mining Ventures.
Both blocks sit within the Barama-Mazaruni greenstone belt of the Guiana Shield and are interpreted to cover extensions of the mineralised trend hosting the Oko gold deposits.
Liberty describes the Oko district as one of the world’s most significant new gold camps, with an endowment of more than 9Moz.
Travis says the two projects sit in an area he considers to be one of the most compelling emerging gold districts anywhere in the world today.
“Having spent significant time exploring in Guyana, I have long believed in the potential endowment of the Guiana Shield to host major orogenic gold systems, and the discoveries in the Oko district in recent years have proven that thesis emphatically,” he added.
“The Birimian belts of Côte d’Ivoire where I have been working most recently are the same rocks on the other side of the Atlantic, so in many ways this is a return to very familiar ground.”
This article was developed in collaboration with Liberty Metals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
