MetalsGrove Mining is set to kick off a significant 10,000-metre, two-rig auger drilling program at its Zuénoula gold permit in Côte d’Ivoire, with mobilisation slated for the end of this month.
The campaign will test seven potential drill targets identified from a string of impressive soil geochemical results.
The company has consolidated its exploration ground at Zuénoula into four principal prospects – Fifty-Five, Central, South East and South West – after fieldwork and number-crunching revealed multiple gold anomalies.
The upcoming auger program will test the bedrock potential beneath the extensive surface gold anomalies and is seen as a critical step ahead of a potential deeper aircore, reverse-circulation or diamond drilling campaign later in the year.
MetalsGrove’s slated two-stage campaign will see an initial 5000m of drilling on a nominal 400m-by-50m grid pattern, with a second stage of infill drilling to be rolled out on tighter 250m-by-25m spacing, depending on its stage one results.
The auger holes will be drilled to an average depth of 5m to test for mineralisation in the upper saprolite horizon, just below the surface cover.
Today’s news comes hot on the heels of the company stitching together a massive 18km-long corridor of gold-in-soil anomalies at the permit last month.
That work delivered a standout 1.24 grams per tonne (g/t) gold soil sampling, defining a series of northeast-trending gold corridors that run parallel to major regional structures in the Oumé-Fetekro Birimian greenstone belt. The Birimian Belt hosts some of West Africa’s richest gold deposits. MetalsGrove says the alignment points to large-scale structural controls rather than just isolated pockets of mineralisation.
MetalsGrove Mining managing director and chief executive officer Lijun Yang said:"Following extensive soil sampling and target refinement,we are preparing to commence a 10,000m auger drilling program across 7 defined potential targets."
Zuénoula forms part of the company’s flagship Central West gold project, a contiguous 1315-square-kilometre land package that straddles the fertile Abujar-Napié gold trend.
The project sits in proven elephant country between several major deposits, including the 4-million-ounce Abujar gold mine 100km to the south and the 3.2-million-ounce Boundiali gold project 237km to the north.
While its neighbours Ghana, Burkina Faso and Mali have traditionally dominated the gold scene, Côte d’Ivoire is emerging as one of Africa’s hottest new exploration jurisdictions.
The country is considered comparatively underexplored despite hosting 35 per cent of the famed Birimian rocks, which are part of one of the world's premier Proterozoic gold provinces.
Adding an extra layer of confidence to the compelling geological story, Haobo Yuan, a new director linked to substantial shareholder Bright Element Pty, recently joined the board. The appointment followed Bright Element's increase in its stake to 12.76 per cent through on-market acquisitions in late May.
While the drill bits are being sharpened, MetalsGrove’s field crews are not sitting idle. The company is continuing with infill soil sampling programs across all four prospects to further refine targets.
Assays for more than 1700 soil samples are still pending at the laboratory, promising a steady stream of news flow in the lead-up to drilling.
With an 18km-long gold trend emerging from the geochemistry, a swag of targets ready for testing and the drill rods about to start turning, MetalsGrove is rapidly moving from early-stage target generation to drill testing.
The market will now likely be watching closely to see if the smoke from the soil sampling starts a real fire at depth, sparked by the drill bit.
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Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Murray Ward
