Cora Gold, West Africa-focused gold explorer has announced targeting resource growth at its Sanankoro gold project, in southern Mali.
The company has received the eighth set of drill results from the drill campaign at the project and noted that results at Zone B represent a Phase 1 programme, targeting the mineralisation along the previously defined 1.7 km strike length of the deposit.
These results demonstrate that there is further mineralisation beyond the existing pit boundaries both at depth and along strike in both directions and offer further encouragement as the company targets a resource update later in the year.
CEO Bert Monro said Zone B was delivering a series of “very encouraging” drill intercepts with good widths and grades of oxide mineralisation coming through in the assays. Cora has now drilled over 27 000 m in this programme and is now expecting to drill in excess of the originally planned 35 000 m as it follows up on some of the results it has been receiving. The miner currently has two reverse circulation rigs and a diamond rig at site drilling out the final metres of the campaign.
Mali drill programme
The objective of the drilling campaign is to build on the Mineral Resource Estimate (‘MRE’), both from a resource growth perspective and upgrading of existing inferred resources to the indicated category, reported by independent consultants SRK Consulting (UK) Limited in December 2019.
The MRE identified a resource of 5.0Mt at 1.6 g/t Au for a contained 265,000 ounces including 4.5Mt of oxide material (comprising hardcap, saprolite and saprock material) at a grade of 1.6 g/t Au, and 0.5Mt of sulphide material at 1.8 g/t Au. Across the deposit, the base of oxidation ranges from 30m-125m, with an average depth below surface of approximately 65m. The open pit shells used to constrain the resource extend to a maximum depth of 130m below surface highlighting the significant potential upside to the current resource.
