Oriole Resources an exploration company focused on West Africa, has provided an update on its ongoing maiden diamond drilling programme at the Bibemi gold project in Cameroon where it is earning up to a 90% interest. Results from the first hole of a planned 28-hole programme have returned best grades of 1m grading 4.09 grammes per tonne (‘g/t’) gold (‘Au’) and 1m grading 0.67 g/t Au, confirming the continuity of the orogenic gold system to more than 90m below surface. The ongoing programme of 28 holes is approximately 50% complete and further results are expected throughout Q2.
The Company is currently halfway through a planned 3,080m programme for 28 holes at the Bibemi project in Cameroon, focused on testing the depth extension of surface gold mineralisation identified at four prospects within a c.8.3km-long system. Previous surface exploration programmes have returned up to 135.40 g/t Au from selective rock-chip sampling and 9m at 3.14 g/t Au from trench sampling.
The first nine holes were completed at the Bakassi Zone 1 prospect and were predominantly drilled at an inclination of -50 degrees towards the northwest, in order to intersect the dominant northeast trending (and steeply southeast-dipping) structure. All holes to date have intersected mineralisation, with visual confirmation in the form of silica-tourmaline veining and/or pervasive alteration and sulphidation (predominantly pyrite, with minor chalcopyrite and arsenopyrite) of the tonalite host rock.
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Results from the drilling
Results have now been received for the first hole, BBDD001, and include a best result of 1m grading 4.09m (using a 0.3 g/t Au cut-off, or 2m grading 2.18 g/t Au using a 0.2 g/t Au cut-off) from 119.75m (91.73m true depth). This interval comprises a c.70cm quartz vein (approximately true thickness) with multiple cross-cutting tourmaline and sulphide stringers and sulphide-mineralised halos. Interestingly, the interpreted surface expression of this vein was narrower and did not carry significant grade, highlighting the importance of intersecting flat-lying (extensional) veins in the role of gold deposition and the potential for the discovery of blind mineralisation.
A second interval of 1m grading 0.67 g/t Au was returned from 71.15m (54.50m true depth) from a zone of weak alteration and quartz veining. Whilst mineralisation was intersected at the expected depth, the grades were not reflective of the 1m wide and 2m wide veins observed at surface that had returned 35.86 g/t Au and 2.54 g/t Au respectively. This suggests that the higher-grade ore shoot could have changed orientation slightly and so, following interpretation of these results, further holes are currently being planned to test the extension of this zone later in the programme.
As previously reported, the most robust zones of mineralisation (up to 12m wide) have been observed in fence line 1, which comprises holes BBDD004, BBDD005 and BBDD007 (announcement dated 22 March 2021). Results from these holes, as well as others from the programme, are expected throughout Q2.
Under the terms of its option agreement with Bureau d’Etudes et d’Investigations Géologico-minières, Géotechniques et Géophysiques SARL (‘BEIG3’), Oriole is currently exercising its option to acquire a 51% interest in the Bibemi and Wapouzé projects, having spent an initial US $1.56m. Completion of the drilling programme at Bibemi should see Oriole satisfy the conditions to earn a 90% interest in the projects.
