Azumah Resources stumbles upon game changing gold intercepts in Ghana

Junior gold explorer Azumah Resources (ASX: AZM) has received exploration results from the Kunche deposit at its Wa gold project in northern Ghana and says the obtained intercepts indicate a “game changer” for the company’s fortunes.

The gold explorer has just completed a first phase 22-hole, 3,431-metre RC-drilling programme at the Kunche deposit, to discover what could be a highly lucrative set of preliminary results.

Most interesting is a high-grade ore shoot approximately 40m below the base of the previously planned open pit.

One drill hole returned one of the best-mineralised intercepts ever at the 1.5km strike orebody comprising an interval of 44m at 5.37g/t gold from 99m. This includes two high-grade zones of 1m at 144g/t gold and 20m at 10.27g/t gold.

News of Azumah’s strong exploration results put a bid through its shares, which rose by around 70% up to as high as $0.04 per share this morning.

“These excellent intercepts are a genuine game-changer for the Wa Gold Project and increase our confidence that we can materially boost Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves,” said Stephen Stone, managing director of Azumah Resources.

Meanwhile, general manager of Azumah’s joint-venture partner Ibaera, Paul L’Herpiniere, said that “these drill results dramatically open up the possibility that mineralisation at Kunche could extend to considerable depth – consistent with similar style gold deposits around the world”.

“We consider this validation of our new targeting model to be an important breakthrough for the Wa project and are extremely confident that the true potential of the project is now emerging,” said Mr L’Herpiniere.

Future targets

According to Azumah, the prime objective across its gold tenements in Ghana is to increase combined ore reserves from the current 624,000 gold ounces to a level that will underpin the development of a standalone gold operation.

Azumah plans to achieve this by progressing a joint venture with Ibara Capital, a private equity group.

In September last year, Azumah executed a transformative earn-in and shareholders agreement with Ibaera Capital, whereby Ibaera can earn in two stages over two years up to a 47.5% direct interest in Azumah’s Wa gold project for an expenditure of US$13.5 million (A$17 million).

Ibaera is committed to a $6 million, multi-target, high-intensity exploration campaign in 2018, including a combined ~47,000m of reverse circulation (RC), diamond, air core and auger drilling.

According to Azumah, these latest results reinforce the likelihood of its Wa gold project seeing a material increase in its overall mineral resource and encourage “encourage early-stage concept plans for possible underground mining.”