Marvel Gold Ltd (ASX:MVL) (FRA:GR2) has updated the market on its 3,400-metre diamond drilling campaign across the Tabakorole Gold Project in Southern Mali.
The gold explorer recently received assays for six of the program’s drill holes, uncovering a 13-metre intersection grading 2 g/t gold.
Interestingly, an aircore campaign at Tabakorole encountered gold mineralisation roughly 3 kilometres southwest of the project’s resource.
Ultimately, the company believes the discovery of additional mineralisation beyond Tabakorole’s existing deposit bodes well for the broader prospectivity of its 830-square-kilometre landholding.
Results from the diamond drilling campaign, combined with the previous 5,400-metre reverse circulation and 900-metre diamond programs, will feed into an upgraded JORC resource estimate expected in late September 2021.
Additional mineralisation “particularly encouraging”
Marvel Gold managing director Phil Hoskins said: “We continue to be pleased with our resource expansion drill program, with these results expected to enhance the resource in the central zone ahead of an expected resource upgrade in September.
“Particularly encouraging is the discovery of additional gold mineralisation some 3 kilometres to the south of Tabakorole.
“This demonstrates that gold mineralisation is now proven to exist in at least two places on the Tabakorole permit outside of the existing resource.
“These zones of mineralisation, together with numerous targets generated through soils and geophysics programs, continue to reinforce the prospectivity of our growing landholding and give us confidence in making additional discoveries going forward.”
Diamond drilling underway
Today’s findings come from the part of the southern Mali project’s permit that forms a joint venture (JV) with Altus Strategies PLC (LON:ALS) (CVE:ALTS) (OTCMKTS:ALTUF).
Under this JV, Marvel holds a 51% stake in that section of the Tabakorole permit.
The Mali-focused gold explorer detailed assays from six diamond drill holes in an ASX announcement, covering 1,128 metres within the broader diamond drilling campaign.
The best intersections included:
- 13 metres at 2 g/t gold from 174 metres;
- 4 metres at 3.9 g/t from 110 metres and;
- 4 metres at 2.8 g/t from 29 metres.
Ultimately, Marvel’s broader 3,400-metre diamond program is targeting resource growth in the central and northwest zones of the Tabakorole deposit.
Specifically, the latest campaign is working to infill mineralisation previously drilled in the central zone and add definition to the north-west zone, where previous exploration intersected 16 metres at 2 g/t gold from 75 metres and 6 metres at 5.8 g/t from 61 metres.
Aircore drilling points to further mineralisation
In addition to the diamond campaign, Marvel Gold has also uncovered some promising results through an aircore reconnaissance program.
The exploration campaign covered 5,148 metres, targeting Tabakorole extensions and three potential regional targets based on historical geochemistry and ground magnetics.
This program intersected 4 metres at 1.3 g/t gold from 8 metres and 4 metres at 2.7 g/t from 20 metres and one hole ended in mineralisation.
According to Marvel, nearby artisanal workings reinforce the potential prospectivity of this target.
The gold explorer maintains the new mineralisation was targeted in an area of moderate gold in soil anomalism because of a historical hole, drilled in 2005, which intersected 12 metres at 1.2 g/t gold and was never adequately followed up.
Diagram outlines new mineralisation relative to multi-element soil geochemistry.
Based on these soil sampling results, Marvel claims numerous areas with multi-element anomalism present as better geochemical targets than the newly identified mineralisation, which shows only low-level pathfinder support.
Overall, this is highly encouraging for the region’s prospectivity and increases the likelihood Marvel will make further discoveries that complement the growing resource at Tabakorole.