JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed Mariana Resources will, during the fourth quarter of this year and the first half of 2017, focus intensely on defining and prioritising reverse circulation drilling testing at its 80%-owned Bondoukou gold concession, in Côte d’Ivoire.

The West Africa-based project, which it acquired from private exploration company Awalé Resources earlier this month, comprises three granted contiguous licences totalling 1 191 km² in the Bondoukou area, and four licences under application for 1 593 km² in both the Bondoukou and Abengourou areas.

The project’s drill targets will be defined through a combination of cost-effective geological mapping, infill soil sampling, auger drilling and geophysics, as appropriate. 

Awalé’s exploration team had, prior to its buyout by Mariana, undertaken reconnaissance exploration over the three granted claim blocks.

Work completed during this initial phase of mapping and sampling resulted in the identification of three priority prospect areas within the Bondoukou Est and Bondoukou Nord Est permits.

A first-pass screening of the extensive Bondoukou claim blocks is currently being undertaken through cost-effective regional silt, soil and rock-chip sampling programmes, with the aim to identify those areas with the highest potential for the discovery of new and blind gold deposits.

To date, 374 regional silt samples have been collected on the basis of each sample covering a drainage catchment area of approximately 5 km². An initial batch of 151 samples, essentially covering broader 10 km² catchment areas, has been sent for analysis – with the remaining infill samples to be submitted for those areas in which significant gold anomalies are detected.

All samples will be analysed for gold and trace elements at Intertek Perth using both a static and agitated bulk leach extractable gold method with ultralow detection limits.

Results are currently pending for all geochemical samples.

Rock-chip and grab sampling have historically also been undertaken by Awalé in the vicinity of known surface workings at Bondoukou Est and Bondoukou Nord Est.

Twenty-one rock-chip samples have returned gold assays exceeding 5 g/t; ten samples have returned between 5.4 g/t and 9.9 g/t gold, six samples between 10.7 g/t and 16.7 g/t gold, and a further five samples between 23.3 g/t gold and 36.7 g/t gold.