Location, location, location. It’s the number one rule in real estate and applies equally to the mining sector, Kobo Resources Inc. (TSX-V:KRI) CEO Édouard Gosselin told Proactive as he described the potential of the company’s Kossou Gold project, which covers 147 square kilometres (km2) in the Yamoussoukro and Bouaflé regions of central Côte d’Ivoire, one of West Africa’s most prolific and developing gold districts.
Côte d'Ivoire is relatively under-explored compared to its West African neighbors but is home to approximately 35% of the Birimian Group rocks — major sources of gold that extend through the region. It is also a country with above-average growth that is going out of its way to attract foreign capital as it positions mining as a second economic engine to reduce its reliance on agriculture and cocoa production.
“We think this is a jurisdiction with significant exploration upside. Good ground is now hard to find. If you hadn't entered a few years back, you're trailing the group,” he said.
Kobo Resources itself is ahead of the pack.
After a brisk start to 2023, the company’s plans are coming together quickly.
The company, formed in 2015 as it took advantage of a new mining code in Côte d’Ivoire to apply for a number of licenses, is fresh from the reverse takeover (RTO) of Meteorite Capital and a listing on the TSX Venture Exchange, which saw it raise close to $4.7 million as a concurrent financing related to the RTO.
Following extensive exploration at Kossou since the 2016 discovery of the Road Cut Zone (RCZ) — where it has since conducted extensive soil geochemical and rock sampling, trenching and airborne geophysical surveys — Kobo is now preparing to get the drills turning.
“We were initially attracted to Côte d’Ivoire because of the West African gold mining states, Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire was one of the least explored, and in our view has the greatest opportunity,” said Kobo President and Chief Operating Officer Paul Sarjeant, a geologist.
“Our next-door neighbour is Perseus Mining Ltd (ASX:PRU, TSX:PRU, OTC:PMNXF), which acquired the Yaouré mine from Amara Mining in 2016 and went into production in 2020. The Kossou Gold project is located within 7 kilometres of the Perseus processing facility, providing a setting with advantages generally not accessible to other exploration opportunities.”
"Surprising discovery"
Sarjeant said what they initially thought was a small alluvial play at Kossou has turned out to be something much bigger.
“I was stunned that when we began our initial exploration activities, there was actually open ground on the eastern margin of a soon-to-be operating mine site. You don't find that anywhere else in the world so that was very intriguing to us,” he added.
While the area had previously been off limits to exploration companies, through Gosselin’s efforts, primarily, Sarjeant said the company was able to get the Ivorian government to approve access to the ground, which allowed us to stake to a larger research permit.
“It's got excellent geology and very strong gold in soil anomalies along several kilometres of strike. It's also got fantastic logistics given its close proximity to an operating mine,” Sarjeant said. “With those three things in your back pocket, you've got all the ingredients to discover a significant resource on the licence and to become a successful junior exploration company.”
“There are a lot of good juniors out there with half a million to a million ounces in resource categories, but they're hundreds of kilometers away or have no access to adequate infrastructure,” Sarjeant adds. “Our proximity to this operating mine provides Kobo with significant potential advantages.”
The Kossou Gold project itself appears to be a classic greenstone hosted gold deposit hosted by Birimian Group, Paleo-Proterozoic age units with significant structures that run through the property, including the initial RCZ discovery and newer Jagger Zone target. Sarjeant noted that the mineralization is not dissimilar to the Yaouré gold mine with a north-south oriented structure extending from contact between volcanic and meta-sediments.
Kobo said it is fortunate to have brought on Chris Picken as Exploration Manager, noting that he spent four years as Geological Superintendent at the Yaouré project for both Amara Mining and Perseus Mining prior to its commercial production. He brings considerable geological and operational knowledge to the company, it added.
“Our targets are located within the same sequence of volcanic rocks as the Yaouré Mine with many similarities,” Picken commented. “We have similar structural controls and alteration styles. I believe this demonstrates that our gold targets have the potential to host significant gold mineralisation comparable to that at the Yaouré gold mine.”
Well-funded
Following the capital raise, and with more than $4.5 million raised prior to the RTO, Gosselin says the company is well-funded as it embarks on its first drill program. It’s planning over 8,000 metres (m) of reverse circulation (RC) drilling as it builds on existing exploration results that reveal about 9 km of gold geochem anomalies.
“The capital raise gives us the wind that we needed in our sails in order to achieve exploration milestones in 2023,” he said. “We will also conduct further exploration work on the Kotobi Permit, Kobo’s other exploration permit located to the east of the Kossou Gold project, totalling approximately 300 km2.”
Kobo is the first company to explore the Kossou permit. No previous exploration company has ever held this ground and so no exploration had been previously undertaken at the Kossou Gold project.
Since then, Kobo has concentrated on geochemical surveys, magnetic surveys, trenching and rock sampling. What it has discovered is over 9 km of gold in soil geochemical anomalies that Sarjeant described as strong, quite expansive and persistent.
“This project has never been drilled before. So, we are focusing our drilling efforts this year on what we call our Jagger Zone, which is a 2.8-km-long geochemical anomaly. We also have our original Road Cut Zone, which is approximately 1.7 km in length as well,” he said. “The objective of this program is to define significant near surface ounces of gold mineralisation and results of this first phase of drilling will determine additional drilling to depth to extend potential mineralised zones. We expect to release our drill results regularly throughout the second half of 2023.”
An additional target Kobo is working on at the moment is the Contact Zone — the area in the vicinity of the contact between volcanics and metasediments. Preliminary mapping has shown evidence of shearing in float samples and elevated gold in soil concentrations in this area.
"We've identified geochemical responses over this target and we've traced that for over 3.5 kilometres on surface,” he said. “So, these are potentially big, big targets.”
Drill program
Due to the size of the targets the first drill program will define the overall extents of the individual zones and which of the target areas has the best opportunity to take to the next level. About 75 holes are planned to depths of 30m to 60m below surface to establish which of the three primary targets has the greatest potential to host a mineralized deposit.
It plans to start drilling in June, with the initial program lasting for about a month before it takes a break while the first set of assay results come in, before continuing drilling. Sarjeant said drilling is likely to be completed by the end of August, with results following over the next couple of months.
“That would be the goal for this first phase, and, on success, we'll go back and we'll advance those targets which we think have the best opportunity for building mineable ounces,” he said.
Other opportunities
While advancing the Kossou Gold project, Kobo also plans to explore other opportunities in the region, including its Kotobi license, which covers approximately 300 km2. There has been some early work undertaken at Kotobi, but the main focus so far has been on Kossou, Gosselin said. A mag survey is planned for the short term, after which the company will set out its plans for the permit.
“We conducted some gold geochemistry on that project a few years ago and we got some positive responses on it,” Sarjeant added. “But, in comparison to our Kossou Gold project, it wasn't as strong, which is why we've pushed that into a secondary project category.”
The company also has three other pending applications in that Bongouanou area totalling close to 1,000 km2. Again, they are all early-stage projects, but prospecting has shown evidence of gold. Of the three, Gosselin said the M’batto application, which is approximately 400 km2, is likely to be the first to be activated, later in 2023 or early 2024.
“There's a lot of artisanal mining on those projects, but they're very early stage,” Sarjeant added. “We will be looking for other projects primarily within Côte d’Ivoire, but we'll also look within West Africa in general, to see what other opportunities we can come up with over the coming months as well.”
Upcoming catalysts
In terms of catalysts for the company and its investors, results from drilling will keep the news flowing over the short term, with the announcement of the first drill results expected in the second half of 2023, Sarjeant said.
“We've got some trench results coming up; we’ve got an ongoing trenching programme," he said. “I know the markets always want to see drill results.”
With an 8,000-metre drill program, Sarjeant said Kobo expects to deliver positive news from the project over the course of the year.
“We’re eager to get our program underway, particularly in the favorable gold pricing environment we’re currently in,” Gosselin concluded. “We think that it's going to be a great opportunity for investors to follow us closely.”
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com