Maiden drilling at flagship Niou gold project returns high-grade results for Mako
Mako Gold intersected up to 53.8g/t gold during its maiden drilling program at the Niou project in Burkina Faso.
A maiden reverse circulation drilling campaign by Mako Gold (ASX: MKG) at its flagship Niou project in Burkina Faso has returned widespread mineralisation with assays of up to 53.8 grams per tonne gold.
Several of the newcomer’s drill holes are believed to have intersected multiple mineralised zones up to 24m wide.
Significant results from three of 11 holes included 15m at 2.30g/t gold from 60m; 9m at 1.39g/t gold from 37m; and 8m at 1.76g/t gold from 50m.
A fourth hole returned a 3m interval grading 18.91g/t gold, while another hole unearthed the 1m interval grading 53.8g/t gold.
Managing director Peter Ledwidge was pleased with the success of the campaign.
“Repeated wide-mineralised gold intersections along with high-grade results is extremely encouraging and will warrant follow-up drilling,” he said.
“Our exploration team [has done] an outstanding job so far in taking this project from greenfield to the current discovery stage.”
Target areas
Mako’s campaign was split into two target areas designed to test multiple parallel shear zones associated with a major regional fault and coincident with a gold soil anomaly along a 7km long strike.
Target A contained a 2km-long by 1km-wide main gold artisanal mining site where small-scale miners have reached 50m depths, suggesting high-grade mineralisation is present in the area.
Seven holes ranging in length from 100m to 150m and up to 120m vertical depth were completed for 810m, with most drilled in a south-easterly direction and at angles designed to avoid artisanal workings.
Target A mineralisation is believed to be open in all directions.
Further drilling
At Target B, four 100m-long holes were drilled across a 1.2km-long soil geochemical anomaly with gold occurrences of more than 50 parts per billion, identified by Mako during an earlier soil sampling program.
These holes were also drilled in a south-easterly direction, and Mr Ledwidge said an extensive follow-up drilling program is being planned to rapidly advance the project.
The drilling will provide “valuable geological and structural information” to better understand Niou’s gold structures and the extent of mineralisation.
Mako listed on the ASX in April with a view to developing several low-cost projects in Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast to capitalise on strengthening gold prices.
At midday, shares in Mako Gold were 21.74% up at $0.14.