Aurum Resources has nailed a series of additional high grades gold hits at its Boundiali Project in Côte d'Ivoire, including 1m at 73.10 grams per tonne from Target 3 in its eastern BM licence, ahead of an expected upgrade to its mineral resource. The company is also working towards a pre-feasibility study at the site which it expects to complete before year’s end.
The new high-grade hit is included in an impressive 12m intercept assaying 6.66g/t gold starting from 69m.
The 12m intercept also contains a shallower 1m interval going 5.13g/t gold from 72m.
The same hole also delivered a solid run of shallower intercepts starting from 40m including a strike of 24.35m assaying 1.21g/t gold, including a 7m interval running 2.19g/t gold from 43m and another 6m at 1.58g/t from 53m.
Other notable results occurred 900m south of the headline hole, where a 1m intersection assayed at 21.2g/t gold on or near the western margin of the second biggest resource area defined within BM Target 3.
BM Target 3 currently extends over a north-south strike extent of about 2.2km and contains three initially defined resource outlines, the third outline being about half the area of previous two mentioned.
The target has been peppered with drillholes as part of a monster 100,000m campaign conducted with its 8 company-owned diamond rigs, with many previously announced holes carrying other high grade hits.
Those hits include 2m at 63.53g/t gold from 111m in a hole that also produced 23m going 2.04g/t gold from 118m, including 14m assaying 2.85g/t gold.
Interestingly, the latest laboratory results have also thrown up a third hole collared about 360m north of the headline hole and 160m north of the northern resource boundary. It intercepted 3.51m going 3.71g/t gold from 278.49m and also 2.66m running 3.21g/t gold from 288.09m, including 1.31m at 5.99g/t gold.
A fourth hole put into BM Target 3 was collared about 120 northwest of the previous hole, where it intercepted 5.05m assaying 2.11g/t gold from a remarkably shallow 9.5m and a separate 4m going 2.47g/t gold from 247m.
Aurum Resources managing director Dr. Caigen Wang said: “This intercept was from drilling targeting up-dip extensions of known mineralisation within the current BM Target 3 MRE. Our drilling is extending the limits of known mineralisation up and down dip, as well as reducing line spacing to 100m along strike. We expect to see an uplift in the mineral resources for BM Target 3 in the next MRE update. Aurum is on track to complete 100,000m of diamond drilling at Boundiali in 2025. These and other drill results will be incorporated into two MRE updates."
At the end of last year, Aurum delivered a combined inferred resource for the three BM Target 3 resource zones which amounts to 4.2 million tonnes averaging 1.1g/t gold for 150,000 ounces of gold.
Together with its BST, BDT1, BDT2, BMT1 resources measured at the end of last year, the company’s Boundiali ground contains a total combined indicated and inferred resource of 50.9Mt at a grade of 1g/t for 1.59 million ounces of gold.
The combined programs, all part of the current 100,000m campaign, have produced a veritable swarm of gold intercepts which will feed into an updated mineral resource which currently sits at about 870,000 ounces.
With a pre-feasibility study for Boundiali expected to be delivered by the end of the year, a separate 30,000m drilling program slated for its Napié deposit and more than $35m in the bank, Aurum Resources has its company-owned fleet of rigs kicking up a dust storm on the Ivory Coast as it works towards building what could be a significant gold resource in West Africa.
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By Doug Bright
