Colin Padget
President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Founders Metals
Talk Abstract
Founders Metals' 200 km2 Antino Gold Project covers a significant portion of the Antino-Yaou-Benzdorp gold district within the Rhyacian-aged Marowijne greenstone belt of the Guiana Shield. The district's orogenic gold mineralization occurs in both shear zone-hosted and intrusion-hosted deposit types. Founders' comprehensive exploration program employs a multi-scale approach, from district to mineral scale, to evaluate and better understand the dominant geological controls on gold mineralization.
At the district scale, the spatial distribution and orientation of Antino and other gold camps, are controlled by the geometry of TTG (tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite) complexes. These rigid bodies act as buttresses that promote strain accumulation within the surrounding volcano-sedimentary sequences. At the deposit scale, gold-bearing shear zones preferentially develop at lithological contacts, fold limbs, and tonalitic intrusive margins—favorable sites for brecciation and veining under late brittle deformation.
The structural evolution includes: Compression generating a ENE-trending fabric (D1); NE-SW shortening (D2a) and development of a penetrative axial planar foliation; NW oriented dip-slip shearing (D2b) with sericite-rich alteration, fault-fill veins, and ankerite alteration; local refolding of D2b mylonitic foliation (D3); and late brittle deformation (D4).
Founders has identified three main deposits (Upper Antino, Buese, Lower Antino) and numerous emerging targets (Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Maria Geralda, Parbo, Lawa) along district-scale NW-striking trends where strain axis orientations from shearing and subseqent refolding control low-stress sites and gold deposition. At the mineral scale, Micro-XRF scanning of drill core suggests that early D2b veins were important hosts for later D3 and D4 gold deposition, with boudin necks and folded mylonite hinges serving as low-stress zones for gold deposition further highlighting the importance of rheology in building a world-class orogenic gold system.
Speaker Bio
Colin Padget is a seasoned mining executive and geologist with over a decade of experience leading exploration programs and advancing gold projects across North and South America. Mr. Padget brings a unique combination of technical and financial acumen, holding a Bachelors of Business Administration alongside a First-Class Honours Bachelors and a Masters degree in geology. Prior to establishing Founders Metals, Colin held the role of Senior Geologist at Thesis Gold, where he played an integral role in delineating high-grade mineralized zones. Mr. Padget’s leadership is defined by an execution focused approach – with a proven track record of guiding exploration projects through key technical and corporate achievements – from early stage targeting to drill definition and market facing value creation.
Colin Padget | LinkedIn
Join us in-person and attend our networking reception using the above registration link for this event or join our live online broadcast below!
Prefer to join us online?
TGDG recommends using Google Chrome to run the meeting virtually. Please register/log-in for this online broadcast using the link. TGDG members will also be able to view this presentation at a later date by visiting our member's only Talk Recordings page.
