Aim-listed exploration company Oriole Resources has reported a maiden Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (Jorc-) compliant target of between six-million and eight-million tonnes at grades ranging from 1.5 g/t to 1.7 g/t of gold for between 290 000 and 440 000 troy oz of gold for the Bakassi Zone 1 prospect at the company’s 90%-owned Bibemi orogenic gold project in Cameroon. 

Independent consultant Forge International delivered the maiden target, of which the potential quantity and grade were deemed conceptual in nature. 

The exploration target was modelled over a strike length of 1 200 m and to a depth of 200 m below surface, using a cut-off grade of 0.30 g/t gold and a top-cut of 20 g/t gold. 

Following the confirmation of a gold-mineralised sub-horizontal vein component within the shear system, the model includes mineralised zones with a true width of up to 36 m, Oriole reported. 

The remaining activities required to define a maiden mineral resource estimate for Bakassi Zone 1 include data verification, which will be completed by Forge in the upcoming field season, as well as a pit optimisation exercise to define blocks with reasonable prospects of economic extraction in accordance with Jorc guidelines. 

The Bakassi Zone 1 exploration target remains open along strike to the northeast and at depth and is just one of four prospects on the licence where drilling has confirmed subsurface gold mineralisation. 

“Cameroon has had no hard rock gold resources reported to date [and] we are looking forward to upgrading and hopefully extending the mineralisation. As one of four prospect areas within the Bibemi licence, Bakassi Zone 1 has seen the majority of our drill focus up until now, as we’ve pushed hard to deliver a Jorc exploration target.  

“In doing so, we have taken a significant leap forward in derisking the concept of there being economic orogenic-style gold mineralisation in Cameroon,” Oriole CEO Tim Livesey said. 

He added that the delivery of the Jorc exploration target was achieved in 19 months since starting the maiden drilling programme at Bibemi. 

“We are keen to expand our resource base both here at Bibemi and also within our highly prospective [Central Licence Package] licence areas in the centre of the country, where we have already identified multiple targets with similar characteristic gold anomalism and associated geology, alteration and structure as identified and drilled at Bibemi,” Livesey said.