Aurum Resources has delivered yet another suite of lengthy gold hits from its burgeoning Boundiali project in West Africa’s Côte d'Ivoire, this time with a headline act showing 69m at 1.05 grams per tonne gold from 195m including 12m at 2.28g/t.
Another hole in the ongoing campaign bored through 10m at 1.97g/t gold from 131m including 2m at 7.37g/t. Both diamond drillholes sit within Target 1 at Aurum’s central BD tenement, which is one of four closely-adjacent or contiguous tenements.
The BD ground encloses a 13km-long north-south-striking prospective “gold corridor” on the Nyangboue gold structure that has been defined from its multiple corridors of anomalous gold-in-soil geochemistry exceeding 20 parts per billion gold.
The latest results come hot on the heels of Aurum recording its highest-grade gold hit to date from diamond drilling at Boundiali, with 1m going 163g/t gold from 277m. The impressive section was contained within a wider 12.22m intercept grading 14.56g/t gold from 275m that was recorded 60m down-dip from a previous 4m segment at 22.35g/t from 226m.
And the hits are likely to keep on coming as management confirmed today that it will soon have six of its company-owned drill rigs tearing through 10,000m a month at Boundiali.
Aurum Resources managing director Dr Caigen Wang said: “This new result adds to the multiple 50-plus gold gram metre intervals we have hit over a 300m strike and an average depth of 200m. Gold mineralisation remains open and we continue to systematically step out along strike and step back to test the limits of what is an incredibly target-rich 13km by 3km gold corridor at BD, which remains under-drilled.”
Wang said the company was focused on building on its “encouraging” drill results from its BD and BM tenements and would continue to test new targets, while aiming to deliver an inaugural JORC resource for Boundiali by late this year.
The project’s gold corridor spans the entire north-south dimension of the tenement and is about 3km wide. Aurum has so far defined seven priority targets within the BD ground, with Target 1 being centrally situated and it has to date been defined through a north-south strike distance of 1300m.
The company has put a strong focus on the BD Target 1 and says it has nailed multiple intercepts exceeding the standard m.ppm (metres intercept multiplied by grade in ppm or g/t) comparative intercept index of 50m.ppm. The best previous intercept from Target 1 is 12.22m going 14.56g/t gold from 275m (178m.ppm).
Management says much of the 13km-by-3km gold corridor still remains untested, with gold mineralisation remaining open. It is systematically stepping laterally and back to test the limits of what it sees as a target-rich corridor in the BD ground.
With the growing confidence Aurum has in the ability for the Boundiali structures to continue to yield more good widths and grades, it has about 45,000m of drilling on the cards for this year. The company says it is well-funded after recently receiving firm commitments for a two-tranche $17 million placement and it also kicked off a $3 million share purchase plan to accelerate the development of Boundiali.
In a sign of confidence in the West African operation, Aurum’s directors agreed to acquire a minimum $1.275 million worth of shares under the placement.
The project’s development will principally build through the results from the company’s exploration of the central BD and eastern BM ground, where results to date define long intercepts, good grades and a liberal measure of lateral continuity.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Doug Bright
