AMN - MALI: Oklo begins Dandoko drilling

Oklo Resources has commenced the 2017-18 drilling program at its flagship Dandoko Gold Project in western Mali under the supervision of a strengthened and highly experienced technical team. The program will target the Seko gold discovery, Dandoko gold corridor and regional targets.

The project is within the Kenieba Inlier and lies 30km east of B2Gold’s 5.15 million ounces Fekola project and 50km south-southeast of Randgold’s 12.5 million ounces Loulo mine.

During the 2016-17 field season, reconnaissance auger drilling was successful in outlining a 12km-long gold corridor at Dandoko. Prior to the onset of the wet season, follow-up drilling completed over one target area within the corridor called Seko encountered significant bedrock gold mineralisation. Other targets along the corridor remain largely untested.

A phase 1 drilling program comprising 25,000 metres of aircore (AC), 6000 metres of reverse circulation (RC) and 1500m of diamond drilling (DD) is scheduled to be completed by the end of January at an estimated cost of $3.5 million.

An AC rig has commenced drilling on 40-metre infill lines between the previous nominal 120-metre spaced lines along the interpreted strike extents of the Seko gold trends.

Initially, AC will be the predominant drill method employed due to its cost effectiveness in the deep weathering profile. Deeper RC and DD drilling is planned to follow the AC program to further evaluate the gold mineralisation at depth in fresh rock. All drilling programs are fully funded from the company’s cash reserves of circa US$12.7 million.

At Seko infill and resource definition drilling will be carried out over the five main Seko gold trends comprising detailed AC testing of the oxide mineralisation to depths of approximately 80-90 mteres and subsequent deeper programs of RC and DD drilling.

At the 12km-long Dandoko gold corridor follow-up AC drilling will be carried out over other anomalies outlined from reconnaissance auger drilling.

First-pass reconnaissance auger drill testing will be done over Oklo’s other projects in south Mali. Auger drilling has proven to be a cost effective and highly successful exploration tool at Dandoko and will be deployed on other strategically located but underexplored projects.

The planned drilling programs will be supervised by Oklo’s highly experienced in-country technical team including technical director Dr Madani Diallo, general manager Andrew Boyd and principal geologist Bathily Mamadou.

Oklo has also announced the appointment of Treeve Oates as project geologist. Prior to joining Oklo, Treeve Oates was employed by B2Gold and CSA Global, which included secondments to the Fekola discovery.

This week Oklo signed an agreement to acquire the Kouroufing Gold Project, which is 20km southeast of Dandoko. The project covers 90.7sqkm within the Kenieba Inlier to the east of the regionally significant Senegal Mali Shear Zone (SMSZ).

Significantly, the SMSZ and associated structures are spatially related to several major gold projects including Fekola, Loulo and Gounkoto.

Kouroufing covers a largely unexplored tract of highly prospective Proterozoic Birimian greenstones in a comparable geological setting to the nearby, multi-million ounce gold mines. Oklo has already identified northeast-trending structures within the project area, which are considered similar to those outlined within Dandoko.

Oklo has commenced work at the project area, with a data compilation process having begun and initial planning for field programs in November and December.

www.okloresources.com