Special Report: A new discovery called the ‘Diabatou Gold Shoot’ could be a watershed moment for Golden Rim, which is just beginning to unearth the potential of its 1.4 million-ounce Kouri project in Burkina Faso.

A break in field work during the COVID-19 pandemic gave Golden Rim (ASX:GMR) time to review an extensive geological, geochemical and geophysical data set for the flagship +1.4moz Kouri project in Burkina Faso.

This review generated an important new geological interpretation which suggests that the ‘contact areas’ between granites and surrounding volcanic rocks could be “favourable depositional sites” for high grade gold mineralisation, Golden Rim says.

Granite contact target areas at two prospects, Diabatou and Mirga, are now a priority for an upcoming next drilling campaign.

The updated geological interpretation outlined 2.6km by 1.2km granite intrusion at the Diabatou discovery, where Golden Rim hit eyewatering grades in maiden drilling last year.

These high grades up to 783g/t gold are now interpreted to lie within the upper part of the steeply plunging, high-grade Diabatou Gold Shoot.

The discovery of the Diabatou Gold Shoot – which remains open at depth and along strike — is significant.

Elsewhere in Burkina Faso, these shoots discovered in granite contact areas can extend vertically for more than 1km and host more than 1 million ounces of gold.

TSX-listed Roxgold, for example, has outlined a 1moz resource grading 13.9g/t in a granite- basalt contact zone at the Yaramoko gold mine.

Freshly minted producer West Africa Resources (ASX:WAF) has similarly delineated a 1moz resource grading 14.1g/t gold in the M1 South Shoot.

Another drill target at Diabatou is a 750m-long gold auger anomaly, which could be associated with the northern contact of the granite intrusion.

At the Mirga prospect, 3km northeast of the current 1.4moz resource, the updated geological interpretation has outlined a 3.2km by 1.5km granite intrusion.

Here, a 1km-long gold auger anomaly up to 200ppb gold with coincident anomalous rock chip samples results up to 11.7g/t gold presents a new drilling target.

With the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in Burkina Faso, Golden Rim is expecting to recommence exploration at Kouri on 3 June.

Field checking over the new granite contact target areas and drill hole planning will be followed up by RC drilling later in the month.

“We have identified a number of previously unknown granite intrusions along the Samira Hill Shear Zone that extends for 40km through Kouri and we believe granite contact areas offer highly prospective new targets for Golden Rim,” Golden Rim managing director Craig Mackay says.

“We have previously drilled four holes on one of these granite contact areas at the Diabatou prospect.

“All four holes hit high-grade gold and we believe we have discovered the upper portion of a high-grade gold shoot.

“In Burkina Faso, such high-grade gold shoots can extend for more than 1km below surface and host more than 1Moz of gold.

“We look forward to testing for extensions to the gold shoot at Diabatou when we re-commence of our drilling.”

 

 

This story was developed in collaboration with Golden Rim, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This story does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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