African Gold Group, Inc. (TSX-V:AGG) said its Faraba exploration permit at its Kobada Gold Project in southwestern Mali in Africa has been extended for three years to 2024, allowing it to develop new and extended open pit opportunities at Faraba, which may lead to the extension of Kobada’s mine life.
The Faraba permit is a part of a group of permits located on the western flank of the Bougouni basin covering an area of 11,119 acres. The shear zones discovered in the Faraba concession form a part of the combined 55-kilometer (km) shear strikes, identified across the three concessions from previous geophysics and soil geochemistry.
African Gold said the current mineral resource for the project area is hosted in a portion of the main Kobada shear, which has been interpreted to extend into the Faraba permit north of Kobada, representing an opportunity to expand resources through further exploration.
READ: African Gold Group says successful trenching program in Kobada Est target confirms similar structural mineralization to main shear
“The renewal of the Faraba permit is a key step forward in opening up the opportunity in our Faraba deposit, which shows significant potential in extending our 55-km shear zones even further,” CEO Danny Callow said in a statement.
“The extension of this permit for three years to 2024 will allow us to move into a more rigorous exploration program to exploit the Foroko and Diaban shear zones to the northeast," he added
In February, the company completed a soil sampling program at the Faraba permit which detected elevated gold levels in the soil geochem samples. A good proportion of the elevated gold grades are along the strike of the interpreted Kobada/North Foroko shear and the Diaban shear. These areas will be followed up with trenching and if successful with drilling, it said.
Samples taken at its Faraba permit in an additional program were again analyzed for gold, with the sampling identifying another potential target area in the northwestern corner of the permit.
The company said initial fieldwork strongly supports the idea that the shear zones do extend into the Faraba permit area. As part of its ongoing, and dynamic exploration program, it said additional work will be carried out in 2022 to improve the understanding of the shear zone extensions into the Faraba deposit.
African Gold said it continues to seek out additional opportunities through organic growth and exploration. Development of the Faraba exploration permit and expansion of the existing resource at Kobada permit are among several organic growth projects in its pipeline. Progressing organic growth is key to delivering shareholder value over the long term, and the receipt of consents at Faraba is another step along a critical path to achieving this goal, it added.
“Yet again the results we have seen at Faraba, although at a very early stage, show a highly prospective exploration permit enabling extensions to two key shear zones that already exhibit historical artisanal workings and gold mineralization,” Callow said.
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