Testing High-Grade Gold Shoot In Burkina Faso
West African gold explorer Golden Rim Resources Ltd (ASX: GMR) has commenced a 2,000m diamond drilling on the Kouri Gold Project in Burkina Faso.
Drilling to test for depth extensions to the gold shoot beneath the current Mineral Resource pit shell and the deepest existing drill hole (MRC050) which returned 7m at 4.6g/t gold, from 191m, including 3m at 10.2g/t gold.
Meanwhile, infill drilling also targeting the upper portions of the gold shoot to enable the company to upgrade the Mineral Resource in this area to the Indicated category.
In October 2020, Golden Rim announced an updated global Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource of 50 million tonnes at 1.3g/t gold for 2 million ounces of contained gold at a 0.5 g/t gold lower cut-off for the Central, East and West Lodes at Kouri.
The high-grade Diabatou Gold Shoot mineralisation lies within the East Lodes Inferred Mineral Resource which comprises 48,000 ounces at 3.2g/t gold and is located 7km from the Central Lodes, which comprise the bulk of the global Mineral Resource.
The high-grade gold mineralisation that comprises the Diabatou Gold Shoot is located within a distinct and continuous zone of intense shearing, up to 10m wide, hosted along a granite-mafic volcanic contact. The shear zone strikes 070 – 0750 and dips 65 – 700 south.
Gold mineralisation is associated with quartz-pyrite veins, quartz-pyrite breccia (granite and mafic volcanic fragments) and disseminated pyrite.
Drilling results to date suggest the shoot is approximately 250m long, steeply plunging to the west, and remains open at depth.
The bottom of the Mineral Resource optimised pit shell (~140m below surface) on the Diabatou Gold Shoot sits in high-grade mineralisation (7m at 4.6g/t gold, including 3m at 10.2g/t gold in hole MRC050) and deeper drilling offers an outstanding opportunity to add additional high-grade gold ounces.
The discovery of the Diabatou Gold Shoot at Kouri is significant as elsewhere in Burkina Faso, steeply plunging, high-grade gold shoots discovered in granite contact areas are known to host more than 1Moz of gold. While the strike extent of these shoots can be limited, they can extend vertically for more than 1km.
Diabatou Gold Shoot’s current dimensions are similar to the upper portion of high-grade M1 South Shoot being mined by West African Resources at Sanbrado, approximately 100km southwest of Kouri.
