Aurum Resources sets sights on maiden resource at Boundiali with third diamond drill rig purchase

Aurum Resources (ASX: AUE) has purchased a third diamond drill (DD) rig and accessories to expedite exploration at its Boundiali gold project in West Africa.

The fully-hydraulic and portable rig will accompany two existing Nock 600 DD rigs inherited in Aurum’s acquisition of PlusOr Global last year.

Over the past five months, the Nock machines have drilled more than 9,000 metres of diamond holes at Boundiali’s two exploration tenements in Côte d’Ivoire.

The new rig is the more powerful Nock 800 and is deemed to be better-adapted to the gold-bearing oxidised layers within the project area.

The rig and accessories (including drilling consumables and spare parts) are scheduled to leave China’s Shanghai port in early March and set to arrive at Côte d’Ivoire within six weeks.

Maiden resource

Aurum managing director Dr Caigen Wang said the new rig would help accelerate exploration at Boundiali with the aim of delivering a maiden resource by year end.

“Our Côte d’Ivoire exploration team has the management experience of operating eight DD rigs on a single gold project with a record performance of achieving more than 13,000m drilling in a month and more than 2,400m from one rig within that period,” he said.

“With the addition of the more powerful Nock 800 rig to our two existing Nock 600 rigs, we are more confident in achieving our 30,000m of DD in 2024 as we target maiden joint ore reserves committee resources in late 2024.”

Dr Wang said the new rig would provide the capacity to test the depth of gold mineralisation at Boundiali.

Recent and historical drilling have indicated the mineralisation extends towards depth in fresh rock under thick and gold-bearing oxidised layers.

Exploration manager

Field work at Boundiali will be headed by newly-appointed exploration manager Yaya Ouattara, building on his track record in target generation and resource definition.

Mr Ouattara has previously been responsible for the delivery of multi-million ounce gold deposits in West Africa’s Birimian Greenstone belt.

He led the discovery of gold resources at Tietto Minerals’ (ASX: TIE) Abujar project in Côte d’Ivoire, growing it from 700,000 ounces in 2016 to 3.8Moz in 2023.

Dr Wang was the founding managing director of Tietto, leading it to become West Africa’s newest gold producer in January 2023 with a $690 million market capitalisation.