West Africa-focused gold explorer and developer Cora Gold, undertaking drilling at an exploration target that is part of its Sanankoro gold project, in Mali, reports that the target has the potential to contain a gold resource of between 490 000 oz and 1.37-million ounces, grading at between 0.58 g/t and 1.21 g/t.

Cora is refining its mineral resource estimate of the target based on historical drill programmes and other exploration activity, having completed 99 834 m worth of drilling between December 2017 and April this year across 1 321 drill holes.

The target – focused on brownfield areas within 8 km of the existing mineral resource and comprising 12 areas, three of which were responsible for over 50% of the exploration target – includes Target 3, Target 5 and 6 and the Selin-Bokoro West Extension.

The exploration work was undertaken by independent consultancy CSA Global and is intended to be used as part of Cora’s planning of future exploration programmes as the company looks to expand its flagship Sanankoro project.

The total volume of ore in the target exploration area ranges between 26-million and 35.2-million tonnes.

Cora notes that additional exploration potential is still considered likely owing to limited exploration activity outside of the known structures hosting the indicated and inferred mineral resources of 920 000 oz, grading at 1.15 g/t that was announced on July 19.

Cora CEO Bert Monro says the exploration target demonstrates clear evidence of the company’s opportunity to considerably expand its mineral resource over time. “The exploration target shows the uplift potential for an additional 1.37-million ounces of gold over and above Cora’s existing 920 000 oz mineral resource at Sanankoro.”

“Cora remains fully focussed on the definitive feasibility study and looks forward to updating shareholders on its progress during the quarter,” he says.