The final results of a recently completed maiden diamond drilling programme at Aim-listed Oriole Resources’ 51%-owned Bibemi gold project, in Cameroon, support the potential for large-scale mineralisation at the project, with gold confirmed at all four prospects within the 8.3-km-long orogenic system.

Best intersections from holes BBDD010 to BBDD029 include 3.10 m grading 1.07 g/t gold and 0.80 m grading 27.90 g/t gold, the latter of which correlates with a previously reported visible gold interval.

The widest zones of mineralisation to date (up to 12 m) have been returned from the southern end of the Bakassi Zone 1 prospect, with the most robust intervals including 2.45 m grading 2.96 g/t gold, 3.60 m grading 1.75 g/t gold and 12.40 m grading 0.71 g/t gold.

There appears to be clear continuity of the mineralised structures between drilling fence lines BZ1_L6 and BZ1_L7, which are 800 m apart, and it is interpreted that the mineralisation continues southwards along strike to Lawa West.

Infill and extension drilling around these lines will be a priority focus for further drilling later in the year, although work plans are currently being designed for all of the prospects.

Follow-up programmes are also being planned for the Bakassi Zone 2 and Lawa East prospects in preparation for the next field season that is due to start in the fourth quarter.

“We are extremely pleased that the maiden diamond drill programme at Bibemi has been so successful, returning multiple gold intersections in over half of the holes. This is very encouraging, indicating that the orogenic gold system we have defined over an 8.3 km strike length at surface, through previous rock-chip sampling and trenching programmes, has been proven to extend below surface at all four prospects and for depths of more than 100 m. 

“In addition to the wider mineralised intervals, we see evidence of higher grades in some holes (including 27.90 g/t over 0.80 m from 69.00 m in hole BBDD020), reflecting the likelihood of a ‘nugget gold’ effect, and in some cases there are multiple parallel sets of veins in a single hole,” CEO Tim Livesey says.

“This Phase 1 programme was undertaken using diamond coring techniques, which has enabled us to obtain a wealth of structural data, essential in our tasks of identifying the structural controls on gold deposition and predicting sites for potential larger volumes of gold mineralisation,” he adds.