JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed Stratex International said on Monday that it would narrow its exploration focus on its Senegal-based Dalafin project after it had produced “encouraging” first drill results.

The gold and base metals exploration and development company had already kicked off its second-phase diamond and reverse circulation drilling programme, after a 33 000 m rotary air blast (RAB) drilling programme early last year identified multiple gold occurrences.

To date, four main geochemical targets, namely Faré, Baytilaye, Saroudia and Madina Bafé, were confirmed by the 33 408 m RAB and air-core drilling programme.

“Given the outstanding follow-up results to date, with one intersection returning 7 m at 86.39 g/t gold from 19 m depth in the borehole, exploration will be focussed on the Dalafin project, where we hold a 75% interest,” Stratex chairperson Christopher Hall said in a strategic update on Monday.

“We expect to release further results from what is an exciting multitarget project in the next few weeks,” he added.

The 472.5 km2 Dalafin gold licence area is said to be centred in the Birimian-age Kédougou-Kenieba gold belt extending from eastern Senegal into western Mali.

According to Stratex, the region was host to multiple major gold discoveries, including Randgold Resources' 3.4-million-ounce Massawa gold deposit and Oromin Exploration's three-million-ounce Sabodala gold deposit, in Senegal, as well as Randgold's Mali-based projects such as Loulo, which boasts 12-million ounces of gold, and Gounkoto, with 5.76-million ounces of gold.

Meanwhile, Stratex started drilling at the 14-million-ounce Tembo gold project, in Tanzania, following the high-grade intersection of 15 m at 22.81 g/t of gold at 299 m.

“… [Stratex] should also see the results of our more closely focussed drill programme at Tembo in the first half of the year,” Hall commented.

“Elsewhere in East Africa, we expect to see some activity in Djibouti where the Oklila project holds the strongest, yet untested, potential in our Rift Valley programme,” he said.