Dalaroo Metals Ltd (ASX:DAL) has completed a large-scale systematic soil geochemistry program across the Gold Ridge Prospect within its Bondoukou Gold Project in Côte d’Ivoire, marking a key step toward maiden drilling.
The program delivered the first district-scale geochemical coverage across an interpreted 9km mineralised corridor, with work completed across both the Priority 1 south-eastern block and Priority 2 north-western block.
In total, Dalaroo collected 3,612 primary soil samples and dispatched 4,363 soil, channel, grab and QA/QC samples to Intertek Laboratory for analysis.
Gold Ridge Prospect soil sampling progress map – completed priority 1 and priority 2 grid coverage.
Program completed across priority targets
Field teams completed about 194.5 kilometres of soil sampling lines on a 200-metre by 50-metre grid, designed to test extensions of a previously identified 2.5-kilometre by 400-metre gold corridor.
The work covered key structural corridors associated with artisanal gold workings, quartz veining, Birimian host rocks and interpreted regional shear zones.
Historical rock-chip results from the corridor include grades of up to 17.95 g/t gold.
Exploration model strengthened
Dalaroo said field observations continued to support the interpretation of a large-scale hydrothermal gold system at Gold Ridge.
Gold Ridge field observations – alteration and channel sampling activities.
The program identified widespread quartz fragments, quartz stockworks, hematite, goethite and limonite alteration, along with iron and manganese oxides.
Channel sampling was also completed across the Dingbi and Amodi artisanal workings, with 71 channel samples and 14 grab samples collected to help refine the geometry and controls of mineralisation.
Exploration manager West Africa Frank Twum-Berima Bosompem said the campaign highlighted “strong structural controls, widespread alteration and extensive quartz veining associated with artisanal gold workings”.
“The successful completion of both Priority 1 and Priority 2 soil programs represents an important technical achievement for the exploration team. Geological observations throughout the campaign consistently highlighted strong structural controls, widespread alteration and extensive quartz veining associated with artisanal gold workings.
"The continuity of the interpreted corridor, combined with the scale of the surface geochemical coverage completed, continues to support the Company’s exploration model for a potentially significant structurally controlled Birimian gold system. We now look forward to integrating assay results with geology and structural interpretation to rapidly advance toward drilling.”
Moving toward drill targeting
The assay results are expected to help define coherent gold anomalies and generate high-priority targets for trenching, auger drilling and maiden RC drilling.
Dalaroo CEO John Morgan said the completion of the program was a “major milestone” that significantly advanced the company’s understanding of the Gold Ridge system.
“With over 4,300 samples now submitted for analysis, we are entering a highly active phase of news flow and look forward to advancing Bondoukou toward drill testing in the near term,” Morgan said.
Upcoming catalysts include receipt of assay results, integration of geochemistry with structural interpretation and geology, definition of drill targets, trenching and auger drilling, and planning for a maiden RC drilling campaign.