West Africa is definitely the place to be for gold explorers, with Burkina Faso in particular proving to be a treasure trove for ASX-listed West African Resources.

West African (ASX:WAF) has again uncovered “bonanza” gold grades, this time up to 520 grams per tonne (g/t) beneath the existing reserves at its M1 South prospect, part of the Sanbrado project.

Miners often use the term bonanza to describe grades that are well above what is considered high grade – usually around 5g/t.

Burkina Faso is Africa’s third largest exploration jurisdiction for gold and the continent’s fourth largest producer.

The former French colony is a small, land-locked nation with a population of about 19 million.

Minerals —  particularly manganese and gold — are its main source of wealth.

West African Resources (ASX:WAF) wiped off its gains as fast as it made them on Tuesday morning.
West African Resources (ASX:WAF) wiped off its gains as fast as it made them on Tuesday morning.

Today’s news prompted a lacklustre response from investors though.

The shares initially added 1.4 per cent to reach an intra-day high of 36.5c before reversing to 35.5c just before 11am AEST.

Earlier this year, West African unearthed high grades of up to 860g/t of gold.

“M1 South continues to show excellent continuity of high grade gold at depth with drilling returning 0.5m at 520g/t [gold] and 23m at 7.3g/t [gold] more than 70m beneath existing reserves,” managing director Richard Hyde told investors this morning.

“Infill drilling has commenced which is expected to extend the current mine life well past five years.”

West African is aiming to release an updated resource for the M1 South prospect and the results of a scoping study on the underground potential of the M5 prospect by the end of the third quarter.

The company has been contacted further comment.

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