West African gold explorer, Golden Rim Resources Ltd (ASX: GMR) has reported bonanza grade gold intersections from its current RC drilling program at the Kouri Gold Project in Burkina Faso, West Africa.
The company reported that exceptional high-grade gold intercepts were received from the first drilling at the new Diabatou and Maré prospects. GMR noted that the new results are near-surface.
Some of the significant intercepts at Diabatou (13 holes) include 7m at 121.2g/t gold from 41m including 1m at 783.8g/t gold from 44m; and 3m at 7.2g/t gold from 56m.
Notable hits at Maré (4 holes) include 4m at 9.2g/t gold from 44m including 1m at 22.8g/t gold from 45m; and 15m at 3.8g/t gold from 53m including 1m at 38.7g/t gold from 54m.
The company reported that the first drilling into the new Gouéli Permit has been completed with assay results pending for 5 RC holes.
Golden Rim also announced that the follow-up drilling at Diabatou and Maré have been completed, with assays pending for 9 RC holes.
Kouri project
The Kouri Project (formerly called Korongou) is located 230km NE of Ouagadougou, in the highly prospective Lower Proterozoic Birimian “Samira Hill” greenstone belt in Burkina Faso, West Africa.
The project covers an area of 57km2 and contains over 1.4Moz in defined Mineral Resources, with significant upside potential to grow.
The project is traversed by a significant NE-trending fault splay which is connected to the major Markoye Fault system. This fault system controls a number of major gold deposits in Burkina Faso and extends into western Niger.
Golden Rim had inked an agreement with Lafi Gold to acquire two exploration permits, Goueli and Margou, which lie directly adjacent to the eastern boundary of the Kouri permit. The combined permit package increases the Kouri gold project area to 245 km2.
RC drilling at Kouri
To date, 7,827m of reverse circulation (RC) drilling (62 holes) have been completed from a planned program of 17,000m of RC drilling and 4,000m of diamond drilling (~150 holes) at Kouri.
The assays have now been reported for 13 holes at Diabatou and 4 holes at Maré prospects.
High-grade intercepts at Diabatou
Diabatou prospect is located within the Margou Permit. The company had completed 15 holes for 1,946m at Diabatou.
The company reported that the drill holes intersected multiple east-west trending zones of disseminated pyrite (1-5%) and quartz + carbonate mineralisation hosted in both K-feldspar and plagioclase-rich sheared granite.
The company has now reported assays for 13 holes, with two pending.
The company reported that the best gold intersections were from the southern mineralised zone which includes 7m at 121.2g/t gold from 41m, including 1m at 783.8g/t gold from 44m; and 3m at 7.2g/t gold from 56m.
The company also reported a gold intercept of 6m at 1.1g/t gold from 29m from the central mineralised zone. This gold mineralisation remains open at depth and to the east.
Significant hits at Maré
The company said that at Maré prospect, 11 holes for 1,363m were completed along the Footwall Shear to follow-up previous gold anomalous auger and trenching results.
Assays have now been received for 4 holes while the assays for 7 holes are pending.
The company reported the intersection of several zones of strong mineralization hosted in sheared fresh andesite. Some of the intercepts include a 5m wide artisanal working (void) from 39m (one of the largest and deepest underground artisanal workings seen at Kouri).
Other intercepts include 4m at 9.2g/t gold from 44m, including 1m at 22.8g/t gold from 45m; and 15m at 3.8g/t gold from 53m, including 1m at 38.7g/t gold from 54m.
Drilling at Gouéli
The company reported that at Gouéli, 5 holes for 640m were completed along the projected northeast strike extension of the 1.4Moz Mineral Resource to follow-up previous gold anomalous drilling and rock chip results. The assay results are pending.
Latest updates and future plans
Golden Rim reported that an initial follow-up RC drilling for a total of 9 holes has been completed at Diabatou and Maré, after strong quartz – sulphide mineralisation and visible gold was noted in the initial geological logging.
The company said that the assay results for 2 holes from Diabatou, 7 holes at Maré, and 5 holes at Gouéli are pending. GRM announced that the drilling at Kouri has now been suspended for the remainder of the rainy season.
Golden Rim reported that it intends to re-commence the drilling again in mid-September with diamond drilling in the new high grade gold zones at Diabatou and Maré.
The Company said that it plans to systematically explore the entire Diabatou granite area, along with the remainder of the Margou and Goueli permit areas.
For this, a regional auger drilling program is scheduled to commence in mid-September. GRM said that this will be the first exploration conducted on a number of highly prospective cross-structures within the Samira Hill Shear Zone in the Margou Permit.
Management comments
Golden Rim’s Managing Director, Craig Mackay, said: “The first drilling program at Diabatou has provided spectacular high-grade gold intersections hosted in granite at a shallow depth. These are the best drilling results we have seen from Kouri so far.
To date we have only explored a small portion of the entire granite area within which Diabatou is located. We also recently entered into an agreement giving us the exclusive right to purchase 100% of the Kotouri Exploration Permit which covers the remainder of the granite area not presently owned by Golden Rim.
At Maré, we have discovered further high-grade gold, also at a shallow depth, only 1.5km west of the 1.4Moz gold Mineral Resource and associated with a prominent 4km long IP chargeability geophysical anomaly.
We eagerly await the assay results from an additional 9 drill holes that have been completed around the high grade gold mineralisation at Diabatou and Maré.
The new high grade gold intersections again demonstrate the extraordinary exploration upside at Kouri and the potential for additional grassroots gold discoveries.
We are particularly excited about systematically extending our exploration effort throughout the new Margou and Goueli permit areas, both of which remain almost totally unexplored.”
