| Project Area 400km² | Partner Toro Gold |
| Deal Type Joint Venture | Partner Expenditure Since JV Inception US$6.1m |
| Current PDI Equity 30% | PDI Expenditure Since JV Inception US$1.4m |
Permit
Ferkessedougou North is located in northern Cote D’Ivoire directly adjacent to Burkina Faso’s southern border. A new style of gold mineralisation was discovered in sheared granitic dykes and their contacts with metasediments resulting in a 17km long gold-in-soil anomaly identified on the permit in FY16/17. The greenstone belt found on the licence is the same as the Ferkessedougou permit and abuts the border with Burkina Faso. Rock types in the permit are mapped as metasedimentary rocks, granite and granodiorite. There are extensive artisanal workings in the permit.
To date, a total of 7,107m of trenching, 80 RC holes (for 4,989m) and 9 DD holes (for 1,059m) have been completed on the Ferkessedougou North Project.
Previous Exploration Activity
2019 DIAMOND DRILLING PROGRAM
A Nine-hole diamond drilling (DD) program, totaling 1,059m was completed at the Ouarigue South prospect in April 2019. Results exceeded Company expectations with thick gold intercepts and high-grade intervals, with best intersections:
- FNDC001: 45.3m at 3.16g/t gold from 45.9m including 9m at 10.31g/t gold,
- FNDC001: 10.9m at 1.94g/t gold from 95.7m, and
- FNDC001: 4.7m at 6.14g/t gold from 134m
- FNDC002: 45.0m at 1.52g/t gold from 42.1m
- FNDC004: 16.5m at 2.43g/t gold from 24m including 4.5m at 5.50g/t gold
- FNDC005: 15m at 2.06g/t gold from surface, and
- FNDC005: 10.5m at 1.71g/t gold from 34.5m,
- FNDC005: 59.7m at 1.35g/t gold from 49.5m including 4.5m at 5.83g/t gold
- FNDC008: 34.9m at 0.98g/t gold from 12m
- FNDC008: 39.7m at 3.54g/t gold from 51.4m including 4.5m at 11.00g/t gold
The diamond drilling program was designed to explore the shape and grade distribution of the Ouarigue South gold mineralised body, which was initially encountered in reconnaissance RC drilling and trenching programs.
2019 TRENCHING PROGRAM
1,960m of trenching was completed in early 2019, with the discovery of a significant elliptical shaped gold mineralised granitic intrusive body approximately 160m long and 90m wide. Trenching was designed to test IP anomalies1 and help define the geology of mineralised granite intersected in previous RC drilling.
Significant intersections from bottle roll assays of channel samples in the trenches include:
- FNTR35: 34m at 5.29g/t gold including 2m at 75.70g/t gold
- FNTR029: 92m at 1.76g/t gold including 2m at 20.60g/t gold and 2m at 8.04g/t gold
- FNTR028: 38m at 1.27g/t gold including 2m at 7.03g/t gold
- FNTR028: 78m at 1.30g/t gold including 2m at 7.47g/t gold
- FNTR028: 22m at 1.60g/t gold including 2m at 9.65g/t gold
2018 REVERSE CIRCULATION (RC) DRILLING PROGRAM
A reconnaissance RC drilling program totalling 80 holes and 4,989m testing a very large area of gold-in-soil geochemical anomalies, with widespread gold values and better intersections including:
- FNRC016: 25m at 3.06g/t gold from 64m including 13m at 5.35g/t gold (stopped in mineralisation)
- FNRC001: 13m at 0.97g/t gold from 4m
- FNRC002: 28m at 0.67g/t gold from 0m
- FNRC003: 14m at 1.20g/t gold from 25m
Better results showing large cumulative widths are shown on the cross section below. Hole FNRC016 was twinned by diamond drill hole FNDC001 (see above) which obtained thicker intercept of 45m at 3.2g/t gold and therefore validated the earlier RC hole’s results.
Future Activity
With the discovery of Ouarigue
South, the joint venture’s has
made good progress towards its objective of finding more gold-mineralised bodies of
this type to target a resource inventory of 1-2 million ounces.
Immediate work focus will be on discovering further sub-cropping Ouarigue South-style gold mineralised bodies. The first step will be close spaced soil sampling followed quickly by an extensive trenching program testing promising anomalies. This is a repetition of the simple but successful approach that discovered Ouarigue South and will be followed up by drilling the promising new targets along with follow-up drilling to test for extensions at Ouarigue South.
