Serious explorers know that if you want to find the next big gold deposit, West Africa’s richly endowed Birimian Greenstone Belt is one of the first places to look and Dalaroo Metals has been quietly building a position in this hotspot.
The completion of the company’s top-priority soil geochemistry program at the Gold Ridge prospect, which forms part of its Bondoukou gold project, represents a significant step toward putting a drill bit in the ground.
Almost 2250 primary soil samples and 120 quality control samples have been collected across the south-eastern target block, covering an impressive 4.5 kilometres of an interpreted 9.5 km long structural corridor. More than 2,000 of those samples are now with Intertek Laboratory for gold analysis.
Dalaroo Metals chief executive officer John Morgan said: “The program is targeting strike extensions to our previously defined gold corridor and is already reinforcing our confidence in the broader mineralised system. Côte d’Ivoire remains a key growth focus for Dalaroo, and Bondoukou is emerging as a highly prospective gold opportunity within a world-class Birimian gold belt.”
The company’s 80 per cent-owned Bondoukou project sits within the prolific Birimian Greenstone Belt in eastern Côte d’Ivoire, which hosts multiple multi-million-ounce gold deposits, including the 4.6-million-ounce Tanda gold deposit operated by Endeavour Mining, just 35km to the southeast.
Significantly, however, this is the first time any large-scale systematic geochemical survey has been conducted over this part of the project. It has been designed to generate high-priority targets for maiden drilling by defining and extending the gold anomalism linked with artisanal workings and known structural controls.
Historical rock chip sampling in the area has already turned up serious grades as high as 17.95 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, a number that commands attention in any goldfield. The soil program has been aimed at understanding where those surface signals originate and how far they extend.
The geology in the area is compelling. Gold mineralisation in the Birimian is most often structurally controlled, occurring along major shear zones and lithological contacts, exactly the kinds of features identified at Bondoukou.
Widespread iron and manganese oxide alteration, quartz fragments and evidence of weathered hydrothermal systems are all present. In tropical gold terrains, geologists know these as the classic fingerprints of gold mineralisation beneath the surface.
Additionally, extensive artisanal workings at Bondoukou show strong evidence of gold mineralisation at surface along volcanic-granitoid contacts. The geological architecture is often associated with orogenic-style gold deposits.
Parallel work at the Dingbi artisanal workings, where local miners have been extracting gold by hand, has added an important layer of data. Twenty-eight channel samples and four grab samples were collected from the site, along with structural measurements to help orient future drilling.
Artisanal workings in the Birimian are often the most reliable surface indicators of a meaningful gold system beneath and Dingbi is now one of the prioritised targets feeding into the drill planning process.
With priority one surveying now complete, Dalaroo’s field crews have moved to the priority two work in the company’s north-western block, where line cutting and soil sampling are already underway.
When the full program wraps up, Dalaroo will have systematic geochemical coverage across the extensive 9.5km-long corridor. This dataset, combined with the structural and geological observations already made, will be used to define first-pass drill targets for trenching, auger and maiden RC drilling. Assay results from priority one are expected in the coming weeks and will be closely scrutinised when available.
Bondokou is shaping up as a textbook early-stage West African gold exploration story unfolding in the right place - a proven geological address, systematically conducted work, and the truth-divining drill bit still to come.
And judging by the company’s surging share price, up almost 30 per cent today to 8.5 cents on strong turnover, the punters would appear to agree.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
