West African exploration company Oriole Resources provided an update last month on its Senala gold mining project, in Senegal, where joint venture partner IAMGOLD has the option to spend up to $8-million to earn a 70% interest.

IAMGOLD this year has completed more than 80% of a two-phase exploration programme for a planned 11 000 m at the Faré and Madina Bafé prospects.

“We are pleased to see the continuation of mineralisation being evidenced by the second line of reverse circulation (RC) drilling at Faré Far South, some 300 m from the previously announced intersections. This gives support to our idea that there are opportunities for multiple pods of mineralisation along the 6.3 km Faré trend, which could be combined to provide sufficient resources for a standalone development target.

“At Madina Bafé, these early intersections again support the presence of mineralisation, and we would hope that additional work could identify the controls on mineralisation in this area,” enthuses Oriole Resources CEO Tim Livesey.

Under the terms of an option agreement on the 472.5 km2 Senala licence, IAMGOLD is currently in Year 4 of its investment period, with a planned exploration budget of at least $1.67-million. Earlier this year, IAMGOLD completed Phase 1 of its Year 4 programme at the northernmost Faré prospect, where the company has previously defined anomalous mineralisation at three anomalies (Faré North, Faré South and Faré Far South) over a strike length in excess of 6 km.

The Phase 1 programme, comprising 689.5 m diamond drilling in two holes, planned to test the depth extension of the main mineralised zone at Faré South, and 4 854 m RC drilling in 42 holes, focused on testing the system along strike at Faré North (three fence lines) and Faré Far South (two fence lines).

Results from diamond drilling confirmed that the orogenic gold system at the main Faré South anomaly continues to a depth of at least 350 m below surface and delivered a best result of 70 m grading 1.46 g/t.

On the basis of all drilling to date at Faré South, including historical drilling by the company, Oriole recently announced a maiden Joint Ore Reserve Committee- (Jorc-) compliant resource of 155 000 oz of gold grading 1.26 g/t in the inferred category, based on a 0.3 g/t cutoff and within a $1 800/oz pit shell. This resource sits within a larger Jorc-compliant exploration target estimate for Faré South of up to 280 000 oz grading 1.10 g/t. Both estimates remain open at depth and along strike.

The resource and exploration target are quoted gross, while net attributable to Oriole is currently 85%.

Initial results from the Phase 1 RC drilling programme, related to 38 holes, also confirmed the prospectivity of the Faré North and Faré Far South anomalies, with best reported intersections, respectively, of 11 m grading 1.22 g/t and 35 m grading 3.61 g/t including 18 m grading 6.46 g/t.

Oriole Resources also reported results for the remaining four RC holes from the Phase 1 RC programme, drilled on the southern fence line over the Faré Far South anomaly. The fence line is located 300 m to the southwest of the previously reported results for Faré Far South and has delivered best intersections (using 0.3 g/t cutoff) of 8 m grading 1.00 g/t from 112 m, including 1 m grading 2.22 g/t and 2 m grading 1.43 g/t.

As per the previous holes in the programme, the geology is reportedly dominated by diorite, granodiorite and sedimentary lithologies, with strong pyrite mineralisation locally, mainly hosted within the granodiorite. Alteration is dominated by calcite, albite and magnetite.

IAMGOLD has also completed more than 60% of its Year 4 Phase 2 programme, comprising 493 m diamond drilling and a planned 5 000 m RC drilling, at the southernmost Madina Bafé prospect, located 40 km to the south of Faré.

The programme has focused on testing a north-east-trending structural corridor where recent artisanal mining activity has been identified in the immediate vicinity of the company’s previous drilling, which returned a best intersection of 9.6 m grading 16.08 g/t from 15.1 m in hole MBDD-002.

Results for the diamond drilling were announced last month and delivered a best intersection of 10 m grading 1.69 g/t from 21 m in hole MBDD21-017.

The company also announced initial results for the Phase 2 RC drilling, for which 3 111 m has been completed to date in 48 holes.

Multiple intersections have been returned from four fence lines that have tested a 500 m portion of the structural corridor at Madina Bafé. Best results include 2 m grading 9.36 g/t from 40 m including 1 m grading 17.7 g/t for MBRC21-197 and 4 m grading 0.98 g/t from surface including 1 m grading 1.96 g/t for MBRC21-203.

Geology observed in the RC holes completed to date shows, from north to south, a large granodiorite unit, interbedded with polymictic metasediments, that is crosscut by quartz-tourmaline veins. Alteration is reportedly dominated by a hematite, albite and chlorite assemblage associated with disseminated sulphides, predominantly pyrite.