Megado Gold confirms safety of onsite exploration team amid political unrest in Ethiopia
Megado has confirmed its team has been able to continue exploration activities without interruption.
Explorer Megado Gold (ASX: MEG) has assured the market that its Ethiopia-based team remains safe amid rising security concerns in the country’s northern Tigray region, approximately 1,000 kilometres from the company’s flagship gold projects.
Megado said it would continue to monitor the evolving situation, which started earlier this month when conflict broke out between the Government of Ethiopia and northern Tigray military forces.
The conflict is believed to have been sparked by several factors, including a power struggle between the leaders of Tigray’s dominant political party and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, as well as an impending election and a push for political reform.
Megado’s Babicho and Chakata gold projects are located more than 1,000km from the centre of the current unrest and the company has confirmed its team has been able to continue exploration activities without interruption.
“We are fortunate to report that [we have been] able to progress operations largely unimpeded, with the only disturbance being a supply chain issue delaying the maiden drilling program by approximately one week,” the company said.
Exploration program
Megado has commenced an extensive trenching program at the Babicho project, located along the Megado gold belt, to enhance its understanding of the mineralisation’s terrane and structural setting, and to identify future drill targets.
Historical soil sampling announced earlier this month delineated a coherent and highly significant 2km long gold-in-soil anomaly with results headlined by 10m at 3.5 grams per tonne gold and 1m at 35.3g/t gold in trenching.
The anomaly coincides with a major north-south trending shear zone which hosts the Lega Dembi and Sakaro gold deposits.
Fieldwork also continues at Chakata, with hundreds of rock chip samples submitted for analysis and preparations being made for initial drilling.
Safety first
Megado managing director Michael Gumbley said safety would continue to remain the primary objective.
“Safety is of pre-eminent importance [and] we are fortunate that our staff and operations can proceed with the same impressive rapidity exhibited to date,” he said.
“We are excited to have commenced our trenching program at Babicho as well as the sampling undertaken at Chakata [and] we look forward to sharing results with the market as soon as they are at hand.”