First assay results from recent drilling being conducted at West Africa-focused gold company Cora Gold’s Sanankoro project, in southern Mali, show high-grade gold intercepts from Zone B outside the existing mineral resource estimate (MRE) model.

The 2026 drill programme is targeting both extensions to existing deposits and a number of highly prospective near-mine greenfield targets, offering the potential for rapid conversion into future mine plan feed.

The first batch of assay results has been received from drilling at Zone B, which is a major focus of the 2026 MRE update drilling programme.

Zone B was prioritised owing to the extensive strike length, broad mineralised widths, limited deeper drilling and significant potential to improve continuity within the existing resource area as part of a targeted drilling campaign aimed at extending inferred mineralisation beyond the current model.

The best intercepts from initial assays at Zone B (central) include 22 m at 2.24 g/t gold from 12 m in hole SC0712.

CEO Bert Monro highlights 34 m at 6.78 g/t gold as a “fantastic drill hole”.

“To encounter this, alongside several other very strong intercepts outside the existing MRE pit shell, in our first holes, is extremely encouraging both for the rest of the results and also the future resource growth,” he acclaims.

Results to date demonstrate broad intervals of mineralisation outside of the 2024 MRE model, including higher-grade zones.

The higher-grade zones may present future mining plan optionality to pursue these zones from underground mining.

These results provide further confidence in the potential to materially expand the project’s current MRE inventory of 1.04-million ounces and life-of-mine of 10.2 years, Cora Gold points out.

The drill programme remains ongoing, with assays pending from Selin, Dakounkoura South, Zone A and Zone C with drilling continuing at TRA07, Kary (Zone B south) and the remaining drill holes at Zone B.

All drilling areas and their resources are within short trucking distance of Sanankoro’s proposed gold processing plant currently undergoing front-end engineering design work programmes.

“These results continue to demonstrate the broad nature of the mineralisation that we have come to expect from Zone B, and importantly it is the higher-grade core of these mineralised zones in the fresh rock that starts to demonstrate the possibility of a much greater extended mine life, beyond the oxide mining and processing.

“As often is the case with startup oxide operations, they morph into much longer life projects with a mixture of openpit and underground operations.  Our current resource expansion drill programme is beginning to unlock further value of the project, as we keep one eye on the future mine life extensions,” Monro avers.