Oklo Resources Limited (ASX: OKU) has announced the recommencement of drilling at its flagship Dandoko Project in Mali, West Africa following the conclusion of the wet season.
The company reported that a 10,000m resource drilling program is currently underway at Seko prospect.
OKU reported excellent grade continuity from metallurgical diamond hole. Significant results include 50m at 3.99g/t gold from surface to the end of hole, which included 12m at 7.19g/t gold from 38m to end of hole, which included 4m at 11.53g/t gold from 40m.
The company reported that representative samples of oxide, transition and fresh rock will be dispatched shortly for metallurgical testwork.
Dandoko project
The Dandoko Project covers 134km2 within the Kenieba Inlier of West Mali in West Africa. It is located in close proximity to numerous world-class gold deposits including B2Gold’s 7.21Moz Fekola gold project 30km to the west and Randgold’s 12.5Moz Loulo Gold Mine 50km to the north-northwest.
The Company currently holds ~500km2 of highly prospective ground in this emerging world-class gold region
Significant prospects of the Dandoko project include Seko, Sory, Dabia, Gombaly, Diabarou, Disse, Selingouma North, Selingouma South, and Bembala.
Drilling at Seko prospect
The Seko prospect is a new discovery by Oklo Resources of five mineralised gold trends (Seko Anomalies SK1-SK5) with significant gold potential.
Oklo reported that an initial 10,000m drilling program comprising aircore (AC), reverse circulation (RC) and diamond core (DD) drilling was approved at Seko prospect in advance of a maiden Mineral Resource estimate scheduled for completion early in Q2 2020.
The company said that AC rig arrived on site late last week and commenced drilling on Monday.
OKU said that the initial phase of AC drilling is expected to be completed in approximately four weeks, and subject to availability, a RC and DD drilling program will follow immediately thereafter.
The company said that the program will focus on infill drilling and closing off areas of near surface mineralisation at Seko anomalies SK1, SK2, and SK3 and surrounding areas to support the resource estimation work.
Assay turnaround time is currently estimated at three weeks.
Metallurgical testwork
The company announced that, in parallel with the current drilling program, it is dispatching samples to ALS Metallurgy Pty Ltd in Perth Australia for further metallurgical testwork on representative oxide, transition, and fresh ore types.
To provide sufficient volumes of material available for testwork, a second PQ diamond metallurgical hole was drilled at SK2 immediately prior to the wet season specifically targeting a near surface zone of mineralisation.
The core kept in storage over the wet season was cut and samples despatched for analysis.
50 metres at 3.99 g/t
The company reported that the assay results confirmed excellent grade continuity within the oxide and transition zones returning 50m at 3.99g/t gold from surface to end of hole.
Within this interval, high grade zones intersected include 12m at 7.19g/t gold from 38m to end of hole, which included 4m at 11.53g/t gold from 40m.
Testwork planned on additional samples
The company announced that three separate metallurgical samples will be dispatched shortly, representing soft oxide material grading approximately 3.0g/t, transitional material of approximately 5.0g/t from hole DDSK19-047 and a fresh/hard rock material grading approximately 2.5g/t from hole RDSK18-0291 (around 210m depth).
OKU said that the testwork on each of these samples will involve bond abrasion and mill work indices, gravity separation, and leach kinetics.
Updates and next steps
OKU said that AC and RC drilling for following up these results has commenced. The company said that further aircore RC and diamond drilling is planned to follow up the latest results.
Oklo announced that upon completion of the current resource drilling program at Seko, the Company’s focus will return to exploratory drilling along the Dandoko Gold Corridor, including diamond drilling at SK2 testing for high-grade shoot development at depth and drilling in the southern Selingouma area.
Management statements
Oklo Resources Managing Director, Simon Taylor said: “The Company is pleased to have field crews back working at Dandoko with drilling underway following the recent wet season.
The Board has approved budgets and drilling programs for the 2019-2020 field season with the aim of delivering a Mineral Resource estimate from Seko in conjunction with further metallurgical testwork. We anticipate receiving first assays in early to mid-November with all work fully funded from our cash position of circa $9.5 million.”
