Compass Gold begins follow-up drill program at Sikasso, Mali
Compass Gold Corp. [CVB-TSXV] has launched its previously announced follow-up drilling program on the Tarabala trend, which consists of reverse circulation drilling at the Tarabala artisanal workings on its Sikasso property in southern Mali, West Africa.
Highlights: An 800-metre reverse circulation (RC) drilling program has begun on the Tarabala prospect. The drilling is focused on tracing the down-dip extension of wide zones of shallow gold mineralization identified through earlier air core (AC), RC and diamond drilling.
Assaying will include cyanide extraction and metallic screen fire assay to accurately determine the extent of nuggety gold previously noted on the Tarabala trend.
Compass CEO Larry Phillips commented: “This latest drill program is intended to determine the down-dip extension and width of some of the gold mineralization we’ve already found at the Tarabala prospect. The different assay methods will also give us critical information on the degree of coarse gold over the 450 m strike length being tested, and will show us which assay method gives the most accurate results in these conditions. Drilling is expected to take one week, and we will report the complete results as soon as they are available.”
Air core (AC) drilling on the Tarabala trend first identified bedrock gold at the Tarabala prospect in April, 2020. Subsequent drilling identified shallow gold mineralization at Massala West. This confirmed the presence of a 4-km-long mineralized zone between Tarabala and Massala West. To date, a total of 106 AC holes (4,972 m), five RC holes (530 m) and five diamond holes (563.6 m) have been drilled at Tarabala over a distance of 1.5 km. An additional 102 AC holes (6,047 m) and 11 RC holes (1,056 m) have been completed at Massala West over three km. The deepest drilling has only tested the mineralized zone to a depth of 80 m from surface.
AC results at Tarabala included wide intervals of up to 16 metres at 1.51 gr/t gold (from 16 m; SAAC02) and 17 metres at 0.73 g/t gold (from 18 m; SAAC109), and included higher-grade subintervals such as four metres at 5.20 g/t gold (from 26 m; SAAC02) and one m at 12.99 g/t gold (from 33 m; SAAC36). Follow-up RC drilling at Tarabala indicated that the mineralization continued at depth, but it was not tested deeper than 60 metres. The widest intercepts from the RC driller were 26 metres at 0.47 g/t gold (from 45 m; SARC001) and 25 metres at 0.58 g/t gold (from 67 m; SARC003). The best mineralization was identified in a one km section of the 2.2-km-long mineralized Tarabala fault.
Two km farther north, AC drilling identified two discrete mineralized zones greater than 550 metres at Massala West. The northernmost zone contained the widest mineralized interval and the highest grade. Drill hole SAAC123 contained 24 metres at 2.35 g/t gold (from 18 m), which included one m at 26.80 g/t gold (from 35 m).
RC drilling in the two zones identified several mineralized intervals, including the widest zone of six metres at 1.02 g/t gold (from 43 m; SARC010). Owing to difficult drilling conditions caused by a higher-than-expected water table, the subsequent RC drilling conducted at Massala West was unable to target the main vein system at a depth of 80 metres.
A resampling program of historic Compass RC chips indicated that coarse-grained (nuggety) gold was likely present at Tarabala. The nugget effect was evidenced by the presence of higher-grade mineralized intervals, such as seven metres at 14.13 g/t gold (including one m at 97.34 g/t Au), compared with an earlier result of 0.42 g/t gold, and previously barren intervals containing gold, such as one m at 0.92 g/t gold, compared with 0.01 g/t gold. The latest drilling will specifically address the nugget effect by employing two assay techniques.
The 800-metre RC drilling program at the Tarabala prospect began March 7. Drilling is focusing on determining the nature of the gold-bearing quartz veins (width, grade, orientation and mineralogy) at depths of 50 to 155 metres from surface. The results will be used to plan further deeper drilling in May. It is hoped that the information gleaned from these programs will enable preparation for a potential resource definition drilling program later in 2023.
Through the 2017 acquisition of MGE and Malian subsidiaries, Compass holds gold exploration permits located in Mali that comprise the Sikasso property. The exploration permits are located in three sites in southern Mali with a combined landholding of 867 km2. The Sikasso property is located in the same region as several multimillion-ounce gold projects, including Morila, Syama, Kalana and Komana.