Aurum Resources hits the ground running at Boundiali gold project in Côte d’Ivoire

Aurum Resources (ASX: AUE) has been given the ideal start to its involvement with the Boundiali gold project in Côte d’Ivoire in the form of promising early assay results from its first drilling program there.

In early November 2023, the Australian miner successfully completed the acquisition of Ivorian mining specialist PlusOr Global, which held the rights to earn an interest in exploration permits covering the Boundiali project.

The binding heads of agreement to acquire PlusOr also included the acquisition of its mine development assets including two portable hydraulic diamond drilling (DD) rigs and associated consumables.

Non-executive director Dr Caigen Wang said the two Aurum-owned DD rigs are already proving their worth.

“We are very excited and encouraged by these excellent results from our inaugural drill program at the BM tenement, which indicate wide gold mineralisation at multiple gold targets from shallow oxidised material from surface as well as into fresh rock,” Dr Wang said.

“Thick oxidised gold mineralisation is an initial priority target for us at the Boundiali Gold Project, as it gives the potential for a low-cost, free digging mining operation for a prospective future open-pit mine resulting from our aggressive DD programs.”

“The extension of wide primary gold mineralisation into fresh rock confirms our confidence in our ability to generate gold resource growth while we are drilling towards depth on multiple targets.”

Promising assay results

Having its own rigs has already highlighted the potential benefits they may provide with Aurum receiving “exciting” assay results from the first eight holes in its inaugural 31-hole DD campaign at the Boundiali BM tenement.

The 4,876.9m scout drilling campaign was conducted under extensive artisanal workings.

Highlight results were: 16m at 1.24 grams per tonne gold from 117m including 6m at 2.44g/t gold from 127m; and 16.3m at 1.02g/t gold from 86.7m including 8.0m at 1.71g/t gold from 95m.

Additional results from this inaugural drilling campaign are expected in coming weeks.

Gold mineralisation remains open at these prospects and planning for the further drilling required to test the known limits on these targets is underway.

The two Aurum-owned DD rigs are now planned to continuously drill throughout 2024 at a rate of 2,600m per month.

Neighbouring permits

The Boundiali gold project is comprised of two neighbouring exploration tenements and a 51-hole DD program for 7,145m is underway on the BD tenement neighbouring the BM tenement.

Boundiali is located within the same greenstone belt as the large Syama (11.5 million ounces) and Sissingue (1.0Moz) gold mines to the north, the Tongon (5.0Moz) mine to the north-east and Montage Gold’s Koné project (4.5Moz) located to the south.

Aurum has a very active campaign planned for its Côte d’Ivoire project and has identified multiple gold targets to be tested that have been defined from extensive gold-in-soil anomalism and artisanal pits that are associated with a north-south trend of metasediments and granites.

It also plans to further investigate a structurally-exciting target zone that is yet to be tested in the south-western margin of the permit.