Viking Ashanti (ASX: VKA) is now planning further drilling at its Blue River gold project in southern Ghana after the company unearthed encouraging gold from assays in nearly half of the 28 reverse circulation holes drilled.
The Blue River project occupies the southern end of the Ashanti Gold Belt and abuts Endeavour Mining’s (TSX: EDV, ASX: EVR) Nzema Mine which hosts a 2 million ounce gold resource.
These resources are contained within the Anwia deposit, and a chain of shallow oxide pits that lie along the Salman shear zone and are in very close proximity to the Blue River and West Star licences that carry a 17 kilometre extension of the same mineralised shear.
Importantly, the positive results from Viking Ashanti’s latest reverse circulation drilling program at Blue River have demonstrated that the 17 kilometre strike of the Salman shear zone in the company’s project areas is a prime exploration target for further systematic evaluation.
Best intersections from infill and extensional drilling on Blue River’s Jasmine prospect include 6 metres at 1.55 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 5 metres at 1.47g/t gold, 6 metres at 1.37g/t gold, 2 metres at 4.32g/t gold, 5 metres at 1.22g/t gold and 1 metre at 7.34g/t gold.
The results confirmed the historical, broader spaced drilling at the Jasmine prospect.
Peter McMickan, managing director, commented on the positive results: “The Jasmine prospect drilling results have defined two zones of shallow gold mineralisation, each of ~300 metres strike length, located immediately south and north of the Ankobra River.
“These results reinforce our view of the high prospectivity of the Salman shear zone, the continuity of mineralisation, and explain the geochemical anomaly at the Jasmine prospect.
“Clearly, further drilling along trend to the north, on our strong geochemical anomalies, is warranted.”
A total of 28 holes were completed for 1,762 metres of reverse circulation drilling. One batch of assay samples, relating to holes BRC 98, 100 and 101, has not met Viking Ashanti’s QA/QC protocols, and is being re-assayed at the SGS laboratory in Tarkwa.
Blue River potential
Previous soil sampling by Viking Ashanti along the Salman shear has defined numerous sub-parallel anomalous zones, with individual anomalies from 400 metres to 1.2 kilometres in length and up to 150 metres in width, and are closely related to individual fault structures identified from mapping and geophysics, within and on the margins of the Salman shear.
Only around 4 kilometres of the 17 kilometres Salman shear zone extension has been tested so far.
Blue River holds a strategic land position within the highly prospective Ashanti Gold Belt of Ghana, which is recognised as one of the most highly gold endowed and tightly held geological provinces in the world.
Numerous gold deposits are located within and around the margins of the Ashanti Gold Belt that include two of the largest gold deposits in the world at Obuasi owned by Ashanti Goldfields Company (NYSE: AU), and Tarkwa mine owned by Goldfields (NYSE: GFI).
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