Marvel Gold Ltd (ASX:MVL) has demonstrated the potential for along-strike continuity of gold mineralisation at the Solona prospect within the Yanfolila Gold Project joint venture in southern Mali.
This has been shown by extensive auger drilling that intercepted further bedrock mineralisation proximal to Solona.
A second mineralised vein system parallel with Solona has also been delineated, which returned up to 1.8 g/t gold and remains open to the northeast.
Further encouragement has come from eastern Yanfolila where broadly-spaced auger drilling suggests that mineralisation encountered during an earlier phase of auger drilling continues over a strike length of at least 1.2 kilometres.
JV with B2Gold
Yanfolila is held under a joint venture with B2Gold Corp in which Marvel holds an 80% interest.
Managing director Chris van Wijk said: “We are encouraged by the results of our recent auger drilling campaign at Yanfolila which have highlighted the potential for further mineralisation along strike from Solona as well as highlighting a parallel zone of mineralisation, which confirms the interpretation of our soil geochemistry results.
"In addition, we have seen anomalous results at Yanfolila east which is a newly defined target. In all instances, auger drilling has worked well as a rapid and low-cost screening method, giving us confidence in its utility for further discovery.”
Three target zones
Marvel drilled 872 holes for 10,586 metres across three broad target zones, including the area hosting the Solona prospect which hosts known mineralisation and extensive artisanal gold workings targeting stockwork quartz veins.
In the Solona target area that includes Solona North Extended and Solona West, 34 holes returned greater than 0.1 g/t gold, including five that returned in excess of 0.5 g/t with a peak value of 1.8 g/t.
The auger program points to ore-grade mineralisation extending along strike beyond the limits of the known mineralisation at Solona.
It also suggests that another gold-mineralised system parallel with Solona prospect is around 500 metres to its northwest and this remains open to the northwest.
Auger drilling at Yanfolila’s Eastern Target ended prematurely due to the onset of seasonal rain.
Drill line spacing here was very broad but results suggest that the mineralisation encountered during earlier drilling continues over a strike length of at least 1.2 kilometres parallel to a known shear zone.
Marvel’s drilling in the north of the Yanfolila licence was confirmatory only, with one line of drilled across each anomaly.
The area contains numerous shallow artisanal gold workings targeting the base of the laterite and the auger drilling suggests that this gold is transported and has not been locally sourced.
Auger successes
Auger drilling was conducted as a follow-up to a previous soil sampling program which defined strong and largely coherent gold and arsenic anomalism interpreted to be focused at lithological contacts which are often favourable sites for the formation of quartz veins.
Marvel uses the auger drilling as a rapid and cost-effective reconnaissance technique to test the bedrock in order to confirm that gold-in-soil anomalies are sourced from the underlying geology and that they have not been transported.
This method has confirmed that in two of the three target zones tested, the soil anomalies are not transported but are in fact derived from the underlying bedrock.
Yanfolila auger samples will now be analysed in-house by the company’s portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) machine.
This will provide multi-element geochemical data which will enhance the understanding of the geology at Yanfolila, the results of which will inform the drill targeting process.