Mako Gold Ltd (ASX:MKG) has received all assay results from its recent shallow aircore drilling program, with the highlight being assays up to 4 metres at 101g/t gold.
The company’s aircore drilling program was undertaken at high priority regional prospects, Tchaga North and Komboro prospects, within the flagship Napié Project in Côte d’Ivoire.
The strategy for drilling Komboro and Tchaga North was to identify new areas for resource drilling following maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE) on Tchaga and Gogbala prospects. This underpins Mako’s broader strategy of identifying a multi-million-ounce deposit on the Napié Project, noting the maiden MRE for Tchaga and Gogbala is on track for delivery by mid-June 2022.
Napié Project – light blue rectangles for Tchaga North and Komboro prospects.
Long high-priority mineralised area identified
Tchaga North and Komboro are located on a more than 23-kilometre soil anomaly and coincident 30-kilometre-long Napié Fault. The average depth of the holes is 28 metres with all holes ending within the oxide zone. Samples were composited to 4-metre intervals.
Results were received from 151 shallow aircore holes drilled on six targets at Tchaga North from a cost-effective scout drilling program. A 2-kilometre-long gold mineralised zone was identified where aircore drilling returned up to 4 metres at 101.31g/t gold; previous reverse circulation (RC) drilling by Mako in 2018 returned 8 metres at 8.53g/t gold and 1 metre at 215g/t gold with visible gold.
This zone lies 2 kilometres north of the Tchaga Prospect on Mako’s Napié Project which continues to deliver district scale potential. Further to this, historic rock chip sampling in the 2-kilometre mineralised zone returned results which include 23.70g/t gold, 14.00g/t gold, 8.09g/t gold and 5.12g/t gold.
Tchaga North Prospect – Select aircore drill results shown in yellow, and select previous rock chip samples are shown in white. Samples with an asterisk are historical rock chips – Note the 2-kilometre-long mineralised trend which hosts the aircore hole which returned 4 metres at 101.31g/t gold and the RC holes drilled by Mako in 2018 which returned 8 metres at 8.53g/t gold and 1 metre at 215g/t gold.
Summing up the results and what is to come from Mako, managing director Peter Ledwidge said, “We are delighted with the results of aircore drilling at the Tchaga North Prospect with assays up to 4 metres at 101g/t gold. The results received from the aircore drilling in conjunction with our mapping and rock chip sampling have identified a 2-kilometre-long high-priority mineralised area which we will RC drill test following the current wet season.
“Drilling has commenced at the highly prospective Komboro Prospect within the growing expanse of our Napié Project. We are very excited by the compelling targets we are drilling, which are generated from geological mapping, rock chip sampling and aircore drilling. Recent geological mapping has identified new and historic artisanal sites which intermittently align over a 9-kilometre strike length, largely the focus of our current drilling program at Komboro, underpinning our belief in the district scale potential at Napié.”
RC drilling at Komboro underway
Not resting on its laurels, Mako has now begun a 2,700-metre RC drill program at Komboro, where targets were identified from recent aircore drilling: 192 shallow aircore holes were drilled on six targets, and from geological mapping and rock chip sampling.
Results from aircore drilling include 4 metres at 1.93g/t gold, 4 metres at 1.20g/t gold, and 4 metres at 1.10g/t gold. Recent geological mapping identified artisanal mining sites with large quartz veins which can be intermittently traced over 9 kilometres in old and current artisanal mining pits. Some of the quartz veins are more than 1 metre wide.
Rock chip sampling was conducted on the artisanal mining sites, with several assays now pending.
Results from sampling received so far include 8.43 g/t gold, 5.12 g/t gold and 4.84g/t gold. Previous results from Mako sampling and historic results include 13.40g/t gold, 7.41g/t gold, and 5.93g/t gold.
Komboro Prospect – intermittent 9-kilometre-long artisanal mining sites which are high-priority targets for current RC drilling program. Select aircore drilling 4-metre composite results shown in yellow. Select new and previous rock chip samples are shown in yellow and white respectively – samples with an asterisk are historic rock chip samples.
What’s next
Drilling at Komboro and planned drilling at Tchaga North Prospect are key elements of Mako’s broader strategy to identify a multi-million-ounce deposit on the Napié Project, which it believes has district scale potential.
Current work programs and results feed well into the upcoming maiden MRE at Tchaga and Gogbala, which as noted is on schedule to be delivered in just a few weeks.
After the MRE is delivered, Mako will continue to drill the 7-kilometre section of the Napié Fault from the north end of Tchaga to the south end of Gogbala, where there are large undrilled zones, with the goal of rapidly growing the resource.
At the same time, Mako will drill at Komboro and plans to drill at Tchaga North with the aim of identifying new areas along the 30-kilometre-long Napié fault for resource drill-out.
Mako expects this broader strategy to provide for quick growth at Tchaga and Gogbala following the maiden MRE and to highlight a clear pathway to overall growth by identifying new mineralised zones for additional resources at other prospects on Napié.