Cora begins new field programme at Sanankoro Gold Project

West Africa-focussed Cora Gold announced the start of a new field programme at its Sanankoro Gold Project in southern Mali’s Yanfolila Gold Belt on Monday.

The AIM-traded firm said the initial focus would be following up the new drill discovery at Dako II, as it announced on 29 July.

It said the field teams and drill contractors were currently en route to the site, with an initial 18-hole, 1,520 metre air core drill programme planned.

Recent drill results, all in oxides, included six metres at 1.48 grams of gold per tonne, 12 metres at 1.52 grams of gold per tonne, and 11 metres at 1.28 grams of gold per tonne.

They also included 55 metres at 0.50 grams of gold per tonne, which itself included seven metres at 1.37 grams of gold per tonne.

Cora also highlighted historical drill intercepts from the company Gold Fields, including three metres at 86.8 grams of gold per tonne, and 15 metres at 0.5 grams of gold per tonne.

The board said the programme was the first part of a planned resource growth programme.

“In July, we reported the discovery of a new 1.5 kilometre long gold discovery at Dako II, seven kilometres south of existing Sanankoro resources at zone A,” said chief executive officer Bert Monro.

“This was significant for a number of reasons, not least that it opened up the Fie Shear Zone as a new regional-scale, generative resource corridor trending four kilometres north eastward from existing intercepts, into the Bokoro and Bokoro East permits.

“The emergence of this new Fie corridor opens up the eastern side of the Sanankoro setting to the discovery of new truckable resources.”

Monro said the company remained focused on delivering a definitive feasibility study on Sanankoro before the end of 2021, having already signed a $21m term sheet on that basis earlier in the year.

“Drilling out a larger resource at Sanankoro is the key focus of our strategy as we target the delivery of a new resource statement in 2021.

“We look forward to updating shareholders on the results when we receive them as well as further drilling programmes across Sanankoro.”

At 1034 GMT, shares in Cora Gold were down 4% at 7.8p.