JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Following the receipt of assay results from the drilling programme completed on the Baraboye and Ibel prospects of gold exploration company GoldStone Resources’ 49%-owned Sangola project, in Senegal, exploration activities would now be focused on the Gangara and Bandafassi prospects, the company said on Tuesday.
GoldStone entered into a joint venture with LSE- and Nasdaq-listed Randgold Resources to explore, evaluate and develop the Sangola project, in April last year, with Randgold funding and undertaking the exploration up to and including the completion of a prefeasibility study.
GoldStone said the Baraboye and Ibel drilling results did not justify an immediate follow-up and, therefore, Randgold would now focus its activities on the other two prospects.
“The Gangara and Bandafassi prospects are of particular interest because they cover an area where Randgold, through its recently completed work programme, identified a previously unknown extension of the main transcurrent shear zone (MTZ) structure, which controlled the formation of Randgold's three-million-ounce Massawa gold deposit to the north-east,” GoldStone said.
"Exploration is ongoing and we are expecting Randgold's experience in this geological environment to firm up additional drill targets along the newly identified extension of the MTZ structure at Gangara and Bandafassi," GoldStone exploration director Dr Hendrik Schloemann commented.