Cora Gold Limited, the West African focused gold company, is pleased to announce the first drill results from its 2022 drill programme at the Company’s Sanankoro Gold Project (‘Sanankoro’ or the ‘Project’) in southern Mali.
· Drill programme consisting of 11 aircore (AC) shallow holes for 897m and 78 reverse circulation (RC) holes for a total of 6,992m (4,958m at Zone B North; 1,092m at Selin South, 504m at Fode 1 and 438m at Target 6) now completed at Sanankoro.
· Drilling targeted both converting existing Inferred Mineral Resources to Indicated Mineral Resources, as well as identifying new discoveries at Sanankoro.
· RC drill highlights at Zone B North:
o 25m @ 2.38 g/t Au from 65m in hole SC0595
o 27m @ 1.40 g/t Au from 18m in hole SC0600
o 5m @ 4.64 g/t Au from 48m in hole SC0598
o 20m @ 1.09 g/t Au from 83m in hole SC0597
o 8m @ 2.47 g/t Au from 39m in hole SC0593
o 8m @ 1.88 g/t Au from 39m in hole SC0593
o 8m @ 1.74 g/t Au from 37m in hole SC0583
· Two new discoveries – Fode 1 and Target 6 both in close proximity to existing Mineral Resources
· AC drill highlights:
o 2m @ 3.56 g/t Au from 41m in hole SC0572 at Fode 1
o 6m @ 0.65 g/t Au from 66m, including 2m @ 1.62 g/t Au in hole SC0573 at Fode 1
o 3m @ 1.24 g/t Au from 7m in hole SC0579 at Target 6
o Awaiting results from RC follow up drill holes at these discoveries
· Drill results consist of all the AC holes and the first 28 RC holes completed at Zone B North. Drill results for the later RC holes are expected imminently.
Bert Monro, Chief Executive Officer of Cora, commented, “Our 2022 drill programme has a dual focus; to both increase the Indicated Mineral Resources at Sanankoro through conversion of existing Inferred material and to target new discoveries to add to the project growth potential in the future. The recent identification of two new gold discoveries, Fode 1 and Target 6, is an exciting new development and we look forward to getting the RC drill results that followed up the initial shallow AC holes.
“The first holes of the RC programme have delivered a number of shallow oxide intercepts, including 25m @ 2.38 g/t Au, which continues to give us early encouragement from the first holes of the programme.”
To view the RNS with illustrative diagrams and maps, please use the following link:
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/7020K_1-2022-5-8.pdf
New Discoveries
Figure 1: Map showing the locations of the two new drilled gold discoveries; Fode 1 and Target 6 at Sanankoro.
Figure 2: Fode 1 target showing the AC collars relative to the ground geophysics IP anomaly. The red dots show collars with gold intercepts in Table 1.
Background on the Geology
Sanankoro is located on the leading western edge of the Yanfolila-Kalana Volcanic Belt, which is the western-most expression of the cratonic Baoulé-Mossi domain, on the major transcrustal margin with the Siguiri Basin. There is major deep-seated structural architecture across the district which links the major gold mines at Siguiri, Lero, Tri-K, Kalana and Yanfolila.
On a project scale, Sanankoro is characterised by the 2 km wide Sanankoro Shear Zone, which can be traced over 30 km from Kabaya South in the western Yanfolila Mine to north of the Niger River beyond Selin and onto Karan. Within the project area, each of the prospects are underpinned by a strong linear parallel, and where strong mineralisation is developed, a pronounced localised NE-SW focused zone of en-echelon veining and associated sulphide development.
Selin Geology
Selin is hosted on the eastern margin of the Sanankoro Shear Zone in the north-eastern corner of the Sanankoro permit. The Selin deposit has a typical interference node control but with the additional positive impact of a strong, rheological diorite intrusive host. The gold geology at Selin is anchored along this linear, en-echelon or possibly folded, diorite igneous intrusive which cores the volcaniclastic thrust assemblage and focuses the gold deposition.
Recent core drilling into Selin has enlightened the genetic model for this deposit by discovering 4-6 multiple early/pre-D3 dykes of diorite intruding the 65-80° W dipping axial trace of a western hanging-wall F3 anti-form on this major reactivated D2 east-verging thrust. The >100m wide Selin Shear Zone may be a regional back-thrust and the dominant eastern margin of the regional west-verging Sanankoro thrust. The largest diorite unit is demonstrably discordant and sits immediately west and adjacent to a major early ductile, 10-30m wide footwall carbonaceous shear. Progressive deformation has folded, warped and possibly cross-faulted the diorite units prior to gold deposition. The early footwall shear fabrics are overprinted by later semi-brittle to brittle graphitic faults which locally convert all protolith to graphitic schist on sub-metre scale. The diorite units exhibit multi-phase veining interference and sulphide development. The dominant sulphide is pyrite with occasional arsenopyrite and a scattering of chalcopyrite. Alteration minerals are predominantly sericite, silica, fuchsite, ankerite, graphite and calcite.
Zone A, Zone B and Zone C Geology
Zone A is the second major deposit at Sanankoro behind Selin and shores up the southern limit of the 11.5 km mineralised corridor, which forms the backbone to the Sanankoro Project. Zone A is the southernmost expression of the 010o trending central axis of the Sanankoro Shear Zone, which is located 900m west of the Selin Boundary Shear and hosts the 5.8 km chain of deposits from Zone A through Zone B to Zone B North. The deposits of this central trend verge westward mimicking the regional sense of thrusting.
Zone B is the third major deposit at Sanankoro behind Selin and Zone A. It is the strike extension of Zone A, located 800m to the north. The Sanankoro Main Trend strikes for 6 km from the south end of Zone A to the north end of Zone B North. Detailed sectional drilling is required along the length of this major generative gold system. The local structural facing and stratigraphy of Zone B is very similar to Zone A with the western footwall sequences hosting more crystalline volcanic tuffaceous units and the eastern, hanging wall assemblages being more basinal sediments. Zone B hosts an impressive scale of hydrothermal activity and the broad horizontal widths of mineralisation observed in the recent drilling bodes well for future discovery potential along the central and southern sections of the Sanankoro Main Shear Zone (SMSZ).
Zone C is located 650m southwest of Zone A on the parallel, +7 km long Sanankoro West Shear Zone (SWSZ) which can be traced along a chain of surface workings to the Excavator Prospect, 1.5 km NNW of Zone B North.
Zones A, B and C deposits are identical in style and typical of Siguiri Basin Deposits, fold-thrust controlled within pelitic and psammitic sediments and very deeply weathered (>120m from surface). There is a highly evolved weathering profile with a pronounced 8-10m thick duricrust-laterite ferro-cap, grading downward into a well-developed mottled zone until 20-25m and remains highly weathered until beyond 130m vertically within the central mineralised fault zone. Below the saprolite lies a 35-40m thick transition zone ending in top of fresh rock at between 160 to 170m.
All of the host oxide lithologies are weathered to kaolin with only highly corroded quartz vein material remaining in-situ to mark the main gold faults. Diamond core shows the host lithologies to be predominantly variably grained basinal pelites and sandstones with minor horizons of small quartz clast, matrix-supported greywacke inter-bedded within the sequence. A minor intercept of diorite has been identified but does not form an important control to the mineralisation currently drill tested at Zone A or C. The primary sulphide is pyrite disseminated around central vein networks and enveloped by a broader hydrothermal halo of silica flooding, sericite and ankerite.
Intersections
The intersections have been calculated using a 0.1 g/t Au cut-off over a minimum 1m sample length. An allowance of 3 m of internal material, below cut-off grade, is included where required. Lengths are apparent in nature and are therefore not true widths of the mineralisation (see Figure 4 and Figure 5).
All samples were sent for 2kg bottle roll analysis at ALS Laboratories with results supported by QAQC analysis.
Intersections are reported according to JORC 2012 guidelines.
Figure 3: Plan view of Zone B North and Fode 1 showing section lines (see Figure 4 and Figure 5)
The conceptual interpretation of mineralisation (Figure 4 and Figure 5) was made using a 0.2 g/t Au threshold i.e. the same threshold used for the Mineral Resource (November 2021). This interpretation is for illustrative purposes only and does not represent a volume or domain that will be used for Mineral Resource reporting purposes in future. The conceptual interpretation illustrates a thickening of the mineralisation in places, resulting in certain drillholes ending in mineralisation. This will be further investigated as more result become available from the 2022 drilling programme.
Figure 4: Cross section 1 looking south at Zone B North showing new drill hole traces and samples relative to a conceptual interpretation of the mineralisation.
Figure 5: Cross section 2 looking south at Zone B North showing new drill hole traces and samples relative to a conceptual interpretation of the mineralisation.
Table 1: AC and RC drill intercepts from the on-going 2022 drill programme.
Competent Person’s statement
The information in this release that relates to Exploration Results was reviewed by Mr Anton Geldenhuys, a Competent Person who is a Member of the South African Council for National Scientific Professions (SACNASP). Mr Geldenhuys (Principal Resource Consultant) is an independent consultant with CSA Global and has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration, and to the activity which he is undertaking, to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the ‘Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves’. Mr Geldenhuys consents to the inclusion in this release of the Exploration Results in the form and context in which it appears. Mr Geldenhuys confirms that the information contained in the Appendix of this release that relates to the reporting of Exploration Results at Sanankoro is an accurate representation of the available data. In addition, Mr Anton Geldenhuys qualifies as a Competent Person in accordance with the guidance note for Mining, Oil & Gas Companies issued by the London Stock Exchange in respect of AIM Companies, which outlines standards of disclosure for mineral projects.
Market Abuse Regulation (‘MAR’) Disclosure
Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014, which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, until the release of this announcement.
**ENDS**
For further information, please visit http://www.coragold.com or contact:
Bert Monro
Craig Banfield
Cora Gold Limited
