Oriole Resources PLC (AIM:ORR) has celebrated yet another year of exploration success in Cameroon as it announced its final results for the year ended 31 December 2022.
In the results statement, Tim Livesey, CEO of Oriole, commented: "The drilling programme at the Bakassi Zone 1 target on the Bibemi licence, led to the delivery of Oriole's maiden JORC compliant Resource in Cameroon. We were particularly pleased by the high level of conversion from the early JORC Exploration Target to JORC Inferred Resource, and also by the robust grade of the resource, giving a first pass estimate of 305,000 oz at 2.19 g/t Au (grams per ton gold)."
"This maiden resource has given us confidence that the Bibemi licence area has ample potential to host a much more significant resource, as the Bakassi Zone 1 deposit is open-ended along strike to the northeast and at depth, and there are three additional gold targets within a 3 km (kilometre) footprint, leading to the possibility of developing a multi-pit mine with a central processing facility," he added.
Livesey called this an "excellent result for Oriole and for Cameroon, opening the focus for orogenic gold deposits in the country".
He continued: "Elsewhere in Cameroon, work on the Eastern CLP [Central Licence Package] has also shown great progress, with the development and early assessment of several gold anomalous drainage basins. Soil sampling and mapping has led to the development of several significant and sizeable gold targets, the largest of which stretches over 12.5 km. Early assessment of these gold-in-soil anomalies appears to support our hypothesis that the CLP hosts a gold corridor, some 15 km wide and up to 70 km long, in which there is the potential to host multiple gold deposits.
"This is a very encouraging result for Oriole, as it confirms our proposition that this area of Cameroon is a new gold district. Previously un-explored, we have only just begun to lift the lid on the opportunities in this area and are pleased to be heading into 2023 with firm targets developing for a follow-up, prospect-wide drill programme."
Livesey added: "Cameroon has also delivered some positive surprises in other commodities, with the identification of lithium anomalism on the CLP. First identified during our early multi-element stream and soil sampling programmes, follow-up work is ongoing to confirm whether the host granitoids and pegmatites could form a source of hard rock lithium. A solid addition to the opportunity in Cameroon, we will be following up on these areas in 2023 and have also applied, and been granted, an extensional licence to capture more of this anomalism to the southeast of the current CLP footprint.
"Cameroon is therefore continuing to develop and deliver success after success for Oriole, vindicating our decision to enter into this new frontier for gold exploration."
Turning to assess the work in Senegal on the Senala licence by its partner IAMGOLD, the Oriole CEO noted: "As we reached the end of the year, IAMGOLD informed us of their wish to sell their interest in the Senala licence as part of a West Africa-wide divestment strategy. We are currently in discussions with IAMGOLD and Managem Group as to the effect of the transaction and the timing of further exploration at Senala."
Livesey concluded: "The success we are having in Cameroon is hugely disconnected from the value the market is ascribing to those assets, and to Senala. At the current share price we believe we are more likely to see a better reflection of our value by looking for finance at the project level wherever possible, and that is what we are doing, alongside the continued efforts to realise value from the legacy assets."
Looking at its financials, the AIM-quoted exploration company saw incoming funds totalling £0.90mln in the year to 31 December 2022, allowing for £0.84mln of direct exploration expenditure in Cameroon, as the group advanced its projects.
Oriole posted an operating loss of £0.53mln for 2022 (2021: £1.44mln loss), an improvement which includes a favourable £1.11mln swing in unrealised foreign exchange movements, while the overall loss for the year was £1.56mln (2021: £1.56mln loss) inflated by £1.45mln impairment provision against the company's holding in Thani Stratex Resources, a legacy asset which it said has no cash-flow implications.
The company also announced that its Annual General Meeting will be held on 8 June 2023 at the offices of Grant Thornton UK LLP, located at 30 Finsbury Square, London, EC2A 1AG.