West African gold explorer, Golden Rim Resources Ltd (ASX: GMR) has unveiled its maiden Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for its Kada Gold Project (Kada) in Guinea.
Kada covers an area of 200 sq. km and is located in the centre of the highly prospective Sigiuri Basin in eastern Guinea. The project is located 35km south of AngloGold Ashanti’s +10Moz Siguiri Mine Complex along the same regional mineralisation trend.
The maiden MRE for Kada lies within the Massan Prospect and has been prepared by independent consultants, RPM Advisory Services Pty Ltd (RPM).
RPM estimates an Inferred Mineral Resource of 25.5 million tonnes at 1.1g/t gold for 930,000 million ounces of contained gold.
The MRE is reported within an optimised pit shell based on a US$1,900/oz gold price and is reported with lower cut-off grades of 0.33g/t gold for oxide-transitional material and 0.41g/t gold for fresh material, based on US$1,764/oz gold price.
RPM estimated the MRE based on the results of 23 diamond drill holes (7,016m) and 80 reverse circulation (RC) holes (11,216m) drilled by Golden Rim and Newmont between 2009 and January 2022 over a strike length of 1km.
Key attributes of the maiden MRE at Kada’s Massan Prospect are as follows:
• Majority of MRE comprises shallow oxide-transitional gold: totals 72% of the MRE ounces (17.7Mt @ 1.2g/t gold for 670,000oz).
• Multiple parallel gold zones comprising the MRE are thick: wider in the weathered oxide transitional zones (typically 10-40m wide) where there is supergene enrichment and gold dispersion, and narrower as the gold zones extend into fresh rock. In the 500-600m wide MRE the gold zones, particularly in the oxide, coalesce in places
• Positive mining characteristics: broad zones of soft, higher-grade oxide-transitional gold mineralisation from surface to ~100m depth; strong indications for significant free-digging, low-stripping, low-cost, open-pit mining.
• Favourable metallurgical recoveries: previous Newmont testwork indicates the gold mineralisation is amenable to simple cyanide leach processing; results for Golden Rim’s metallurgical testwork being conducted by ALS Laboratories in Perth is expected later this month.
• Exceptional Mineral Resource growth potential: MRE open at depth, including high-grade zones such as 29m @ 8.5g/t gold; numerous shallow oxide gold targets in the project area, particularly along the 15km Kada Gold Corridor.
• Analogies with the +10Moz gold Siguiri Mine Complex: gold-bearing quartz-sulphide tourmaline stockwork mineralisation, with a deep >100m oxide zone, very similar to the mineralisation at AngloGold Ashanti’s Siguiri Mine, located 35km north along the same mineralisation trend.
• Under-explored and emerging gold region: the Siguiri Basin in Guinea remains highly under-explored; excellent recent 3.6Moz gold discovery at Bankan by Predictive Discovery.
• Low discovery cost: US$8/oz, including acquisition costs
Current Progress and Next Steps
Golden Rim’s primary objective at Kada over the remainder of 2022 is to further grow the Mineral Resource. Golden Rim expects to commence another round of RC exploration drilling (7,000 to 8,000m) in March/April 2022, focussing initially on following up the recent oxide intersection of 66m @ 1.0g/t gold at the Massan Prospect which is located 400m north of the Golden Rim MRE area.
Drilling will then move to test the five target areas identified along the Kada Gold Corridor and the Sinin Prospect target in the parallel corridor 1.2km to the east.
One of these target areas is the Bereko Prospect, located at the northern end of the Kada Gold Corridor where auger drilling outlined highly anomalous zones of bedrock gold and where a zone of intense stockwork vein bedrock gold mineralisation in artisanal workings, has returned rock chip results up to 171.5g/t gold.
Another round of diamond drilling (1,500 to 2,000m) is planned within the MRE area, initially to test for depth extension to areas of high-grade gold mineralisation beneath the current pit shell.
The first diamond hole is planned beneath KRC025 which returned an oxide intersection of 96m @ 3.3g/t gold, including 29m @ 8.5g/t gold.
The next round of RC and diamond drilling will also include some infill drilling in higher-grade portions of the MRE to convert Inferred to Indicated resources.
An infill auger drilling program is planned for the eastern portion of the Kada permit and the 2km gap in auger drilling within the Bamfele permit.
Representative samples of drill core (660kg) from Kada are undergoing metallurgical test work by ALS Laboratories in Perth, Western Australia.
This test work is progressing well and the results are expected later this month.
For further information please visit: http://www.goldenrim.com.au
