SENEGAL – Oriole Resources and its joint venture (JV) partner IAMGOLD have announced positive drilling results from the Faré and Madina Bafé deposits at the Senala project, in Senegal.
Iamgold conducted a Phase 1 drilling programme at the Faré prospect for 689 m of diamond drilling in two holes, and 4 854 m of reverse circulation (RC) drilling in 42 holes.
A Phase 2 programme was partially completed at the Madina Bafé prospect for 493 m of diamond drilling down three holes and 3 111 m, from 5 000 m planned, of RC drilling.
The remainder of this drill programme will be completed in the fourth quarter, following seasonal rains.
“Continued positive results from Faré reconfirms our belief that this prospect, with its three distinct, yet neighbouring zones of mineralisation, has the opportunity to host a stand-alone resource and ultimately the potential to host a mine development,” said chief executive Tim Livesey Oriole .
“These initial diamond drill results from the ongoing programme at Madina Bafé also provide encouragement for the potential of that prospect to host a satellite deposit for the nearby Boto mine development project.”
“This prospect has the opportunity to host a stand-alone resource and ultimately the potential to host a mine development.”
Tim Livesey – Chief Executive Officer, Oriole
Some of the results include 70 m of mineralisation grading 1.46 g/t gold from 1 m and 10 m grading 1.69 g/t from 21 m.
IAMGOLD has the option to spend up to US$8 million to earn a 70% interest in the project. The company is currently in year four of its investment period.
Tim Livesey says the two confirmatory intersections take the project one step closer to a main resource at Faré South.
“At Faré, results from the two diamond holes drilled to test the main Faré South anomaly support previous drilling carried out by our own team between 2013 and 2014,” he said.
“We hope that the information from these two confirmatory diamond intersections will take us one step closer to developing a maiden resource at Faré South which, based on the wide zones of near-surface gold mineralisation, we believe would lend itself well to open pit mining,” he said, noting that this mineralisation is open at depth.
The AIM-quoted company has also received results for 38 reverse circulation drill holes at the Faré North and Faré Far South prospects, which targeted evidence of gold mineralisation identified previously by Oriole and joint venture partner IAMGOLD Corporation.
IAMGOLD has the right to acquire a 51% interest in the project once it completes the current Year 4 expenditure plan and then has the option to lift this interest to 70% if it spends a further US$4million over two years.
