Marvel Gold identifies compelling anomalies from maiden sampling at Kolondieba project
Marvel Gold expects to reveal a “meaningful” increase to Tabakorole’s gold resource estimate later this month.
Results from maiden soil geochemistry work carried out at the Kolondieba gold project in southern Mali have demonstrated several compelling anomalies for joint venture owners Marvel Gold (ASX: MVL) (80%) and Oklo Resources (ASX: OKU) (20%).
The November campaign identified numerous targets believed to exhibit a similar geochemical signature to the nearby Morila deposit, being anomalous in gold, arsenic and copper with multi-element support over a 15 kilometre strike.
Marvel collected approximately 1,300 samples to verify the results of historical sampling carried out by Randgold Resources in the early 2000s using modern low-detection, multi-element analyses.
Randgold encountered a number of high-grade samples containing up to 3.03 grams per tonne gold.
Marvel’s program spatially verified the results and confirmed the presence of several large and discrete targets exhibiting gold and multi-element anomalism within a regional trend along the Bannifin shear zone.
One new target was identified in an area previously unsampled by Randgold.
Maiden outcome
Managing director Chris van Wijk was pleased with the maiden outcome.
“We are particularly encouraged by these results as they confirm and reinforce our original view of the prospectivity of Kolondieba,” he said.
“The historical airborne magnetics has the structural data to deliver robust targets and increased confidence in our interpretations and is being used to guide a maiden auger drilling program that is now underway.”
Ionic leaching
Soil sampling was completed on a 400 metre by 400m grid with samples subjected to ionic leach to establish the pathfinder element anomalism across the Kolondieba.
Ionic leach is a geochemical method of determining soil anomalism derived from underlying in situ mineralisation.
Over multiple cycles of rain and evaporation, meteoric waters dissolve elements in the ground which rise upwards towards the surface, with the ions being deposited on the surface of soil grains.
During analysis, the ions that coat the grain surfaces are washed-off using a weak alkali solution.
Low absolute values
“It is the chemistry of this solution which is assayed as opposed to the chemistry of the physical soil, meaning that ionic leach will typically yield low absolute values, but the signal-to-noise ratio is enhanced, allowing for robust anomaly detection over large areas,” Mr van Wijk said.
“In the case of Kolondieba, this has allowed for verification of the historical Randgold soils as well as providing pathfinder elements which lend additional support to the targets generated.”
Arsenic and copper are common pathfinders associated with gold deposits in the Birimian terranes of West Africa.
Mr van Wijk said the close spatial association of these pathfinders with the gold anomalies reinforces their validity and helps to eliminate false positive anomalies produced by alluvial gold.