Oriole Resources PLC (LON:ORR) said it has been awarded five new licences in Central Cameroon which significantly expand the company’s footprint in the country.
The explorer highlighted that the new acreage alongside three other licences awarded to Oriole’s partner Reservoir Minerals Cameroon represents a contiguous, district-scale land package.
It spans some 3,592 square kilometres (km2) of what it described as highly prospective geological terrane.
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Oriole noted that an initial programme of desktop remote sensing and regional-scale stream sediment sampling will kick off in the first half of 2021. The programme will seek to identify targets for future exploration.
“As first movers in Cameroon, and with further advanced exploration ongoing at our Bibemi and Wapouzé projects in the north of the country, we are extremely pleased to have received formal approval for these additional new licences in central Cameroon,” said Tim Livesey, chief executive in a statement.
"Based on our in-house prospectivity analysis in 2019, this district-scale grassroots licence package was identified as having significant potential to host orogenic-type gold mineralisation. We believe that this contiguous package of nearly 3,600 km2, offers exciting greenfield potential and we look forward to commencing our first-pass exploration programmes during the first half of the year,” he added.
The licences have an initial three-year term, starting a possible nine-year exploration tenure.