JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – TSX-listed Roxgold expects its exploration activities to increase this year to support the company’s organic growth strategy, with an approved exploration budget of $8-million.

Roxgold noted in a statement that a further round of drilling, totalling about 11 000 m, will be undertaken in the second and third quarters at the 55 zone at its Yaramoko gold mine, in Burkina Faso.

This programme will primarily target resource growth at depth, below and west of the fourth-quarter 2016 drilling programme. 

A ground geophysical survey campaign that started in early February will comprise two pole-dipole gradient surveys and two conventional induced-polarisation (IP) surveys.

The largest pole-dipole survey will cover an area along the Yaramoko shear zone that includes the 55 zone and Bagassi South deposits. It will aim to outline the western extension of the gold hosting structures, as well as subparallel structures between the two deposits and south of the Bagassi South QV1 structure. 

The first conventional IP survey will be conducted over the Boni shear zone, a regional structure which hosts Semafo's Siou deposit to the north of Yaramoko. The second conventional IP survey will be conducted over a granite-mafic volcanic contact located west of 55 zone and Bagassi South that exhibits similar structural settings to the Yaramoko shear zone. 

The ground geophysical survey anomalies will be followed up by reverse circulation and diamond drilling programmes in the third and fourth quarters of this year, following the completion of the 55 zone and Bagassi South drilling programmes. 

BAGASSI SOUTH
Roxgold further noted that an infill and extensional drilling programme at the Bagassi South deposit, located near its flagship underground gold mine at the 55 zone, returned a large number of high-grade intercepts. These intercepts are being incorporated into an updated mineral resource estimate, which is likely to be released in the third quarter.

Highlights from the programme include, but are not limited to 45.1 g/t  gold over 4.1 m including 78.9 g/t over 2.3 m in diamond drill hole YRM-17-DD-BGS-131 at QV1, 13.5 g/t gold over 13.1 m including 38.2 g/t gold over 2.8 m and also including 36 g/t gold over 1.6 m in diamond drill hole YRM-17-DD-BGS-162 at QV1.

Results include 290 g/t gold over 0.8 m in diamond drill hole YRM-17-DD-BGS-184 at QV, 11.4 g/t gold over 3.2 m including 58.1 g/t gold over 0.6 m in diamond drill hole YRM-17-DD-BGS-238 at QV and 72.6 g/t gold over 0.7 m in diamond drill hole YRM-17-DD-BGS-240 at QV.

“We are very pleased with the large number of high-grade results over significant widths reported as part of the infill and extensional drilling campaign at Bagassi South,” commented Roxgold president and CEO John Dorward.

He noted that the consistency of mineralised intervals on the QV1 and QV Prime structures was encouraging as the company prepares an updated mineral resource estimate in the third quarter, with a feasibility study for Bagassi South in the fourth quarter.