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NEWGENGOLD PREVIEWAFRICA

African Gold in the places to be

by Mark Andrews

ust where the next West African gold acquisition will emerge from African Gold was undertaking a range of early-stage geological
Jis a question African Gold Ltd’s chief executive Glen Edwards work and drilling across its properties in Mali in late 2019 and hoped
continues to ask himself. to have a steady stream of news flow to market through to mid-
As the intrigue builds, Edwards aims to give African Gold the 2020.
best chance of being the go-to West African explorer by building Among the news items will be results from Agboville, Cote d’Ivoire,
a substantial package of well-endowed gold plays in Cote d’Ivoire whereby follow-up work was being concluded after a maiden
and Mali. shallow reconnaissance-style aircore drilling programme was
Having only listed in February 2019 with interests in Cote d’Ivoire, completed.
African Gold has quickly cobbled together some 436sq km of land A total of 174 holes were drilled on 17 short traverses over 10km
in west and south Mali amid heightening levels of artisanal activity in strike of the 20km-plus long Tyche gold-in-soil anomaly, with a
the country’s Kenieba Inlier hosting the prolific Mali-Senegal Shear bedrock source to gold anomalism and potential for a large gold
Zone. system confirmed.
The Faleme and Abra Resources Pty Ltd permits recently acquired Drill intersections of 9m @ 1.24 g/t gold from surface, 6m @ 1.12 g/t
in west Mali are close to the 15 moz AngloGold Ashanti Ltd/ from surface and 6m @ 1.42 g/t from 8m indicate width and grade
IAMGold Corp Sadiola mine and Barrick Gold Corp’s 14 moz Loulo- potential across the entire 10km of the anomaly drilled so far.
Gounkoto mine, while a sixth permit in the country’s south is near “We did some extra soil samples to extend that soil anomaly to
Resolute Mining Ltd’s Syama mine. the south, then we did some trenching and we are awaiting those
While African Gold’s permits are in prospective terrain, Edwards is results. It is a big system, it is going to take time,” Edwards said.
clear on the company’s strategy. “It will take a bit more drilling. We did the trenches as an attempt to
“People must remember that in Mali we didn’t have any properties see if it was an effective alternative to aircore drilling to get down
to start with and we have now picked up 450sq km in really great into basement. It is a very expensive exercise with clearing and
areas, mostly in the Kenieba window, but also along strike of Syama. compensation and it is a slower process, so further work through
We have some ideas for that, but we won’t dwell on the properties, aircore rather than trenching will need to be done to further define
we will assess them, make a decision and move on if necessary. that anomaly.”
We won’t drag our heels on a deposit, we are still looking for that Agboville, 50km north west of Abidjan, is an area of Cote d’Ivoire
elusive 5 moz gold project,” Edwards told GMJ. not previously exposed to any drilling, with Edwards “quite pleased”
“It is particularly busy [in Mali] and across the river [in Senegal]. I at having defined a big robust system and extending the anomaly
think there is a lot more genuine activity and the artisanal activity is during first-pass activities.
amazing; definitely a lot more artisanals on the side of the road than No doubt there will be keen eyes on African Gold, which is driven
there were three months ago. by Evan Cranston (non-executive chairman), Steve Parsons
“I am not saying the artisanal activity is economic, but they are (executive director), Tolga Kumova (non-executive director) and
making new discoveries and there is certainly more gold than I have Michael Naylor (company secretary/chief financial officer), as
ever seen in Kenieba. I think there are more deposits to be found interest returns to greenfields exploration companies.
there and not massive quartz vein. The artisanals are only targeting Edwards said that companies had finally realised the cupboard was
one style of mineralisation, but Randgold managed to find three or bare of new opportunities to buy in Africa, which had put a renewed
four different types of mineralisation which is encouraging because focus back on the greenfields sector.
it means that this system is robust rather than having one type of
“I don’t see where the next acquisition in Africa for a Newmont
deposit. In terms of geological prospectivity, this is one of the hottest
[Mining Corp] is. Endeavour [Mining Corp] is finding their own stuff,
places,” he said.
but if you were a mid-tier company, where would you buy your next
deposit? I think that there is an enthusiasm back into generative
stuff; it is high risk, but it is a lot cheaper than trying to buy a deposit,”
Edwards said.
“Our Ivory Coast package is quite big [1,800sq km] and if you pick
the right pieces of ground in Mali then you don’t have to sterilise or
generate targets. It is amazing how many properties we have been
offered in Mali. We have got good JV partners and we have got a
country manager who is a well-known Malian with connections. We
African Gold picked up highly prospective tenure in west are flooded with opportunities because we are good at working and
and south Mali in 2019 honouring deals.”

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