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AFRIcA FocUs

Arrow straight back to work in Burkina

L ockdown restrictions their recent scepticism
have done little to damp-
of projects in troubled
en West Africa’s latest Aus- Burkina Faso. Golden is
tralian explorer Arrow Miner- happy to take advantage
als Ltd and its quest to move of the market interest.
quickly on its Dassa gold “Clearly West African
project in Burkina Faso. Resources [Ltd] getting
Arrow entered Burkina up and running is very
Faso late last year after positive and then you
acquiring private group Bo- have the Predictive Dis-
romo Gold and its suite of covery [Ltd] announce-
gold assets originally put to- ments which resulted in
gether by well-known West a tenfold increase in the
African explorers Ed Baltis share price,” he said.
and Simon Bolster. “We are seeing it in our
“It had been open ground share price; we got a
Ed and Simon had pegged,” Arrow manag- Arrow began drilling on its Dassa project in good reaction from the
ing director Howard Golden told Paydirt. Burkina Faso last month announcement that drill-
“The targeting was brilliant and that has ing would start.”
been demonstrated with the discovery of the strike length of Dassa. ASX-listed companies have enjoyed ex-
Dassa as well as at the Hounde South JV “We have 3km of strike but there is a gap ploration success across West Africa for
where Roxgold [Inc] has had some exciting in the middle where it dips under cover,’ more than a decade but Golden believes
results. So, Ed and Simon are two from two Golden said. “We are drilling that gap right the region’s gold story is still in its infancy.
so far.” now and will then drill down-dip to look at “The Yilgarn in Western Australia has
Arrow moved quickly on the assets, it in 3D.” been explored for many decades and we
making a new discovery at the Dassa pros- The auger drilling campaign will test the are still finding deposits today,” he said.
pect, part of the Divole West gold project, strike length to the south-west and Golden “West Africa has only really been going for
in central-west Burkina Faso, in late 2019. is already weighing up where Arrow will a decade and, given the challenges, we
By February this year, Arrow had grown take Dassa next. have only been able to scratch the surface
Dassa into a 3km-long prospect with hits “If we can see the deposit goes for the so far.”
of up to 6m @ 3.8 g/t gold from 117, 17m @ entire 3km strike length then we have a de- M&A has also been a recurring theme in
1.6 g/t from 93m, 3m @ 15.1 g/t from 53m, cision to make,” he said. “We will have to West African gold this year and while Ar-
17m @ 3.3 g/t from 2m, 13m @ 2.4 g/t from think about drilling out a resource or con- row is still in the early stages of project de-
5m and 33m @ 1.9 g/t from 21m. tinue with the auger drilling to see if the po- velopment, Golden admitted interest was
The drilling defined two continuous tential goes beyond the 6km.” already being shown.
zones of shallow gold mineralisation, both The COVID-induced delay means Arrow “The phone is ringing now way more
open in multiple directions and at depth. will have limited time in the field before the than it used to,” he said.
“These are classic Birimian greenstone- wet season arrives in West Africa before With the impending wet season set to
hosted orogenic gold targets,” Golden the end of August. slow drilling in Burkina Faso, Arrow is also
said. “Secondary structures are common, “We will keep moving during the wet,” preparing to return to its West Australian
with the gold mostly in oxide near the sedi- Golden said. “We can still do some soils roots.
ment-granite contact.” and have stream sampling from the Boulsa A data review of the company’s WA port-
A share placement in March topped up project in the lab now.” folio has revealed several enticing targets
the bank balance for the 2020 exploration It is unusual circumstances to be drilling according to Golden.
campaign but when COVID-19 struck Ar- on a West African project without having “To say Arrow was a shell would be a
row was forced to slow activity. any of the Australian team overseeing pro- bit unkind,” Golden said of the company’s
With restrictions now easing, Arrow is gress on the ground but Golden is confi- pre-Burkina Faso portfolio. “It had some
back on the ground with a new 3,500m dent in the abilities of both the in-country money and assets but was looking for
programme at Dassa beginning in mid- Arrow team and drilling contractor Capital something new and exciting to put in. We
July. Having raised $3.4 million in June to Ltd. [Boromo] had the assets but the market
fund the drilling, Golden is excited by the “Ordinarily we would have someone over wasn’t there for an IPO, to bring them to-
campaign ahead. there but obviously with the restrictions we gether made sense and there is still merit
“Two things have worked in our favour can’t do that,” he said. “But everything is in the WA projects.
[for the raising]; the gold price and the as- good. We are in good, secure places and “We sifted through thousands of data
sociation of gold equities and the good sto- we have processes in place to minimise points from the Stricklands project and it
ry we have – a discovery in Burkina Faso the chance of COVID-19 spreading. looks very interesting. We have discovered
and new targets on our WA tenements as “We have a strong, professional, moti- three VMS anomalous zones. We don’t just
well.” vated team. They are very capable and our have quite remarkable VMS anomalism,
The goal of the drilling is simple; extend manager Bourima Dallo runs the project; they are quite well constrained. We could
the 3km of mineralisation already identified he is very good.” do EM – which is useful in VMS deposits –
down-dip and along strike and define ad- The market is besotted with gold explora- once the wet comes in Burkina Faso.”
ditional gold potential which could double tion currently with investors even dropping
– Dominic Piper

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