Cora Gold releases latest drilling highlights from Sanankoro

The AIM-traded firm said the work confirmed the potential for higher gold grades at multiple zones.

It said the 14 kilometre-long Sanankoro Gold Discovery was situated in the Yanfolila Gold Belt in southern Mali, and had an independently-determined exploration target of between one and two million ounces of gold with significant upside produced by SRK Consulting UK.

Cora said it had undertaken extensive work programmes to advance the project, resulting in the identification of multiple gold zones, which had been completed on time and within budget.

The recent work programme included more than 6,000 metres of aircore and reverse circulation drilling, and over 600 metres of core drilling.

Sanankoro was currently made up of three main areas - zone A, zone B, and Selin.

The company said its drilling in 2019 had focused on around six kilometres of mineralised structures in those zones, explaining that in total there were around 30 kilometres of mineralised structures across the Sanankoro permit area that formed the exploration target.

At Selin, it said an infill drilling programme was undertaken, comprising 14 aircore and reverse circulation drill holes, to continue the understanding of gold mineralisation along the 2.25 kilometre-long mineralised structure, and to ensure coverage on drill fences about 80-100 metres apart with at least two holes per fence.

“Results from this programme demonstrate that identified mineralisation correlates with the results from earlier programmes,” the board said in its statement.

“In addition, the host mafic unit continues to be identified and a new oxide gold zone was discovered.”

Cora said the depth of oxidation was confirmed as extending to 80-90 metres at the southern end of the gold zone, shallowing to 50-60 metres towards the north.

Results included nine metres at 3.07 grams of gold per tonne, eight metres at 3.12 grams of gold per tonne, 25 metres at 2.81 grams of gold per tonne, 19 metres at .61 grams of gold per tonne, 25 metres at 2.81 grams of gold per tonne and nine metres at 2.37 grams of gold per tonne.

Continuity of oxide gold mineralisation was traced for approximately 2,250 metres at surface, the board added.

It explained that reconnaissance exploration drilling also confirmed that primary “potentially-economic” gold structures existed in areas extending away from Selin, and provided guidance for future drilling in those areas.

In many of the reconnaissance holes anomalous gold intercepts associated with zones of quartz veining were identified over intercept lengths of up to 31 metres, which were interpreted to define the location of primary gold structures.

Selin reportedly demonstrated “good potential” for future extraction through low-cost open pit mining, and the enhanced knowledge of the continuity of oxide mineralisation justified a further exploration programme to investigate the deeper sulphide mineralisation, the board said.

At zone A, Cora said a wide zone of gold mineralisation had been identified within the 250 metre-long high-grade gold zone at zone A, which it said appeared to plunge moderately to the north, providing a future exploration target.

Oxide assay results from two reverse circulation drill holes demonstrated depth extension of gold mineralisation to between 90 and 100 metres from surface.

Grades returned included 27 metres at 2.43 grams of gold per tonne, and 36 metres at 2.40 grams of gold per tonne.

At zone B, the board described it as a 1,500 metre long prospect situated around 1,000 metres north of zone A along the Sanankoro structure.

Cora said it reduced drilling at the prospect to a 968 metre reverse circulation and core programme, due to access issues across the central part of the zone caused by historical artisanal workings.

Five reverse circulation drill holes were completed, testing a 360 metre northern extension of zone B.

In addition, a single diamond core hole, consisting of a 60 metre reverse circulation collar and 79 metre core tail, was completed at the southern end of zone B to infill between two widely-spaced previous drill fences.

Assay drill results from within 100 metres from surface demonstrated a continuation of high-grade gold mineralisation and included 11 metres at 3.27 grams of gold per tonne, 31 metres at 1.39 grams of gold per tonne, seven metres at 3.14 grams of gold per tonne, two metres at 5.46 grams of gold per tonne, and three metres at 5.39 grams of gold per tonne.

“Previously-acquired ground inverse polarity [and] resistivity data suggests that the linear structure associated with zone B over much of its length becomes structurally complex in the area of these new reverse circulation drill fences,” the board added.

Finally, the company described zone B north as a direct extension of the zone B prospect.

It said results from a 10 hole, 771 metre aircore and reverse circulation drill programme completed on drill fences typically between 80 and 120 metres apart confirmed continuity of gold oxide mineralisation across 1,060 metre strike length at the prospect, and tested oxide depths of up to 70 metres.

It said intercepts included 21 metres at 3.13 grams of gold per tonne, and 24 metres at 1.48 grams of gold per tonne.

Surface exploration indicators suggested that the exploration potential for the gold zone at zone B north extended for at least an additional 2,500 metres.

“Our programme at Sanankoro was targeted at providing greater confidence to support the SRK exploration target of between 1-2 million ounces of gold to a vertical depth of 100 metres,” said Cora Gold chief executive officer Jonathan Forster.

“This work has generated positive results, consistently demonstrating the continuity of the mineralisation with economic potential.

“Additionally, we have drilled some deeper holes that have intersected mineralisation to up to 170m depths, to establish new exploration targets within the sulphides.”

Forster said the company believed that the scale of the structure at Sanankoro was “substantial”, given that drilling to date had only focussed on oxides over less than 20% of the potential mineralised structures on the permit area.

“Accordingly, we look forward to advancing our fourth quarter work programme to support this belief; details regarding this will be provided soon.

“Notably, having raised nearly £2m in September 2019, Cora is well funded to fast-track these programmes.”

As at 1457 GMT, shares in Cora Gold were unchanged at 6.6p.