Aurum Resources is fast-tracking plans to test the upside of the Boundiali gold project now that it has successfully completed the acquisition of Côte d’Ivoire mining specialist PlusOr Global.
Aurum revealed in early November that it had entered into a binding heads of agreement to acquire 100% of the issued share capital of PlusOr, which held rights to earn an interest in exploration permits covering the Boundiali gold project.
The deal also included the acquisition of PlusOr’s mine development assets including two man-portable hydraulic diamond drilling (DD) rigs and consumables for 10,000 meters of DD needs.
“We are very pleased to have acquired 100% of PlusOr following the satisfactory completion of our due diligence where no issues were identified,” Aurum non-executive chair Troy Flannery said.
“It’s worth noting that PlusOr currently has two drills operating at Boundiali and has already drilled 29 diamond holes for 4,592m”.
Active drilling program already underway
Aurum is now awaiting assays from PlusOr’s Boundiali drilling campaign.
At the same time, it is refining drilling plans for a number of high priority targets for a campaign of more than 7,000m of core drilling.
Utilising the two newly-acquired DD rigs, the program is expected to commence by year-end.
Aurum believes that having its own drilling rigs available on-site at Boundiali provides it with a number of significant advantages, including the ability to reduce drilling costs by up to 65% while enabling the rig owners to fast-track resource growth and reduce cash burn and the need to capital raise to keep rigs spinning.
Multiple targets still to be tested
Previous geological mapping and interpretation has defined multiple gold targets along a north-south trend.
Target 1 will test an area of 1,300m strike length, where active artisanal mining is occurring.
The proposed 1,810m program of 14 holes at the target is being designed to confirm mineralisation along the 1,300m of strike length and down dip opportunities.
Target 2 covers 1,700m of strike length in another area of active artisanal mining.
The 4,765m drilling program of 33 holes is being designed to confirm mineralisation along strike and down dip.
Target 3 will investigate a north-south trend of mineralisation with 1,300m of strike length in an area where no artisanal workings have yet been identified.
A 570m, four hole program will test mineralisation along strike.
Untapped gold play
Aurum considers Boundiali as a significantly under-explored asset located in a highly prospective gold region in the Boundiali greenstone belt which hosts Resolute Mining’s (ASX: RSG) Syama gold operation and the Tabakoroni deposit in Mali.
Notably, a number of high-grade deposits have been discovered in the Côte d’Ivoire section of the belt’s southern extension including Perseus Mining’s Sissingue gold operation and Bagoe deposits and Canadian-listed Montage Gold’s recent 4 million-ounce Kone gold discovery.
The company says that while the Boundiali area has been under-explored, results to date have shown considerable promise with four reverse circulation holes intersecting gold mineralisation including 22m at 1.06 grams per tonne from 87m and 9m at 1.79g/t of gold.
Historic work has also identified an extensive gold-in-soil anomalism.
