Mako Gold Limited (ASX:MKG) has commenced a 7,000m, 1,400-hole auger drilling program on the Ouangolodougou and Korhogo Nord permits which constitute the Korhogo Project in West Africa.
The permits collectively cover 296 sq. km hosting 17km of faulted greenstone granite contact. Both permits are 100% owned by Mako and are easily accessible from the existing Mako Field Office.
Korhogo is located in a highly prospective greenstone belt that hosts Barrick Gold’s 4.9Moz Tongon gold mine and Montage Gold’s 4.5Moz Kone gold deposit, both in Côte d’Ivoire, as well as Endeavour’s 2.7Moz Wahgnion gold mine across the border in Burkina Faso.
“We are pleased to be advancing exploration on our Korhogo Project in the highly prospective Birimian greenstone belt which hosts Barrick’s 4.9Moz Tongon Gold Mine,” Managing Director, Peter Ledwidge, said.
“We started work on the project in 2021 with an airborne geophysical programme as well as a geochemical soil sampling programme, which identified highly prospective targets which we will now be testing with auger drilling.
“We are fast-tracking the auger drilling sampling programme with two rigs on the ground so that we can commence a 10,000m AC drilling program when the auger results are received.
“We are fully financed to advance this exciting new greenfield programme on the Korhogo Project, as well as the Napié Project which remains our primary focus as we rapidly progress towards our MRE.”
The auger drilling grids cover large prospective areas identified from the interpretation of the airborne magnetics geophysical survey and the 400m X 100m preliminary soil geochemical survey, which were completed by the Company in 2021.
Review of the soil sampling data and subsequent ground truthing of anomalous soil sample locations by Mako geologists indicated that a tighter grid of follow-up soil sampling, as was previously planned, may not be the best follow-up exploration method in this area.
Large portions of the permit are covered with transported material which mask soil anomalies. The anomalous soil samples which were returned from the preliminary program were not in transported material. The soil anomalies are generally located along structures (faults), interpreted from the airborne geophysical survey. The auger grids were planned to cover the highest priority coincident soil and geophysical targets.
Two Landcruiser-mounted auger rigs will be used in order to fast-track the drilling programme. Both rigs will work together on each grid in order to send the samples to the lab as soon as the drilling is completed on each grid. This will speed up the assessment of results by the company in preparation for the 10,000m AC drilling programme which is planned as soon as the results from the auger programme are received.
. It is interesting to note the size of the footprint of the nearby 4.9Moz Tongon gold mine operated by Barrick, compared to the size of auger grids and the strike-length of the soil anomalies on the Ouangolodougou and Korhogo Nord permits. This bolsters the Company’s confidence that the Korhogo permits could host large gold deposits.
For further information please visit: https://www.makogold.com.au/
