Gold explorer Oriole Resources has signed a definitive earn-in agreement with BCM International, which will earn up to a 50% interest in Oriole’s Mbe gold project, in Cameroon.

This is Oriole’s second earn-in agreement with BCM, having signed a similar deal earlier in January related to the Bibemi gold licence in Cameroon.

BCM began as a civil works and mining construction firm in Western Australia in the 1950s before expanding into Ghana, Mali, Tanzania, Guinea and Niger and establishing itself as a leading mining and civil contractor in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Mbe deal involves BCM meeting certain commitments, including a $1-million signature payment and $4-million in exploration expenditure.

BCM will also pay future resource-linked success-based payments.

The earn-in agreement is conditional on the successful conclusion of BCM’s due diligence review on or before January 31, with sampling results from that review expected soon.

“Since Oriole was granted its package of eight contiguous licences in central Cameroon back in February 2021, we have advanced with great success, identifying a large number of significant gold anomalies in what we suggest could be a corridor of mineralisation some 75 km long.

“Prior to our licence application, this area was open ground and indicates the huge opportunity Cameroon has for new discoveries,” says Oriole CEO Tim Livesey.

He adds that the originally identified 12-km-long gold-in-soils anomaly identified at Mbe has delivered several zones of significant gold mineralisation in vein sets grading up to 134 g/t gold.

Livesey expects the current period of due diligence by BCM will show further support for this area when results are received from the sampling programme later this month.

With two of Oriole’s 11 licences in Cameroon now under earn-in agreements, the company retains a significant position in this emerging jurisdiction for gold exploration.