Aurum Resources has uncovered high-grade gold in a diamond drilling program at its Boundiali project in in Côte d’Ivoire, with assays showing a headline 4m interval grading an eye-catching 22.35 grams per tonne from 226m.
But the standout intersection was not sitting solo, with other results including 5m at 4.73g/t from 53.5m including 1.1m grading a healthy 20.35g/t and 16.64m at 1.45g/t from 56.26m including 10.4m going 2.11g/t.
The best of the deeper gold hits were 12.85m at 1.11g/t from 209.15m and 10.27m at 1.32g/t from 253.73m. Shallow hits graded as high as 1.4g/t from 7m and 12m at 1.29g/t from 17m.
Aurum says it has drilled 61 diamond holes within the two Boundiali tenements since October last year. Today’s eyebrow-raising results are from 23 of the holes, which have provided a total of 3572m of core for analysis.
The company says it is taking aim at producing a maiden gold resource estimate for Boundiali late this year.
Aurum Resources managing director Dr Caigen Wang said: “We are very pleased to report high-grade gold intercepts as well as multiple intersections of shallow and wide gold mineralisation from our inaugural scout drilling campaign in the two exploration tenements comprising the Boundiali Gold Project. While drilling is continuing and more assay results are pending, we are confident our aggressive diamond drilling program will firm up more targets for subsequent gold resource definition drilling through CY2024.”
Management’s decision to buy a third, more powerful diamond rig last month to bolster its drill fleet, signifies the company’s commitment to the project. It says its total drilling capacity will be about 4000m per month when the new rig is spinning drill rods at the site from late next month.
Aurum currently has two diamond-core rigs working at Boundiali. It took ownership of both rigs as part of its acquisition of original tenement holder PlusOr Global in December last year and wasted no time in kicking off the scout drilling program.
And results from the program to date have not disappointed, with the company releasing assays from the first eight diamond drillholes in February going as high as 16m at 1.24g/t from 117m including a 6m-thick section grading 2.44g/t from 127m, 7.39m at 1.94g/t from 139.34m including 5.35m at 2.53g/t from 141.37m and 16.3m at 1.02g/t from 86.7m including an 8m chunk going 1.71g/t from 95m.
The Boundiali project is made up of two tenements – Boundiali BM and BD. Today’s assays are largely from Boundiali BM, which sits in the north-east of the project area, about 100km south of the border of the West African country of Mali.
The project area covers the underexplored southern extension of the Boundiali greenstone belt considered prospective for gold and has some noteworthy neighbours working up their own gold-laden ground nearby.
Perseus Mining has a 1.4-million-ounce gold resource at its Sissingue mine about 50km along strike to the north of Boundiali. About 120km along strike to the south of Boundiali, Montage Gold’s Koné project contains 4 million ounces.
As Aurum commits to its Côte d’Ivoire project with a third drilling rig, the market can expect a solid news flow of assays from Boundiali for the remainder of this year. Plenty of metres will be drilled – and quickly – underpinning management’s drive towards a maiden gold resource.
The price of the yellow metal is sitting at about $3150 per ounce today, continuing a strong period of recent performance.
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By Andrew Duffy
