Roscan CEO encouraged by Mali drill results
A village in Mali, West Africa. Source: RosCan Gold Corp.
RosCan Gold Corp. [ROS-TSXV] shares were active Friday August 16 after the company released new assay results from its Kandiole Project in Mali, West Africa.
The latest results are from a diamond and air core (AC) drilling programs that were completed between April and July this year. The program was designed to test both the north and south extensions of the Mankouke gold discovery zone as well as many other strong termite and soil gold anomalies that occur on the land package.
Air Core drilling is used to sample unconsolidated ground and compressed air is used to remove the cuttings from the hole. The company said it is planning further drilling to test the extent of the mineralization at depth and along strike to the north and south of the strongly mineralized zones.
Highlights from Friday’s drill results include 7.59 g/t gold over 8 metres (including 28.30 g/t gold over 2.0 metres) in drill hole ACMan-19-93. The Mankouke gold discovery has been shown by detailed drilling to have a strike length of at least 600 metres.
On Friday, RosCan shares eased 8.3% or $0.015 to 16.5 cents on volume of 838,455. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of $0.05 and 32.5 cents.
RosCan has been working to assemble a sizeable land position in the Biriminian Rocks of West Mali, one of the most productive greenstone belts on the African continent. It has signed option agreements with Touba Mining SARL, allowing RosCan to earn a 100% interest in the 56 km2 Kandiole-North permit and the 27 km2 Kandiole-West permit. It also has the option to acquire a 100% stake in the 16 km2 Mankouke permit. In addition, RosCan has an option to earn 100% interest in the 65 km2 Segando-South and 32 km2 Moussala North permits.
As a result, the Kandiole Project consists of approximately 271 km2 of contiguous land, comprised of five permits and located east of B2Gold Corp.‘s [BTO-TSX, BTG-NYSE] Fekola Mine and Iamgold Corp.‘s [IMG-TSX, IAG-NYSE]  Boto and Diakha deposits.
“We are continuing to show that we have an excellent new gold discovery at Mankouke that appears to have both strike and depth continuity,” said RosCan President and CEO Greg Isenor. “Our land package has great potential and we are extremely encouraged by the hits we are seeing on the outside of termite gold targets,” he said.
In November, 2018, RosCan said it had launched a 3,500 Air Core drilling program which was designed to test several gold geochemical anomalies. The program was expected to consist of approximately 77 holes (47 holes on Mankouke and 30 holes on Moussala Nord).
Back in January, 2019, the company said air core drilling was completed on over five anomalies that were tested with seven lines of AC holes drilled across the target areas generally in an east-west direction and drilled at -50 degrees to the west and to a depth of 45 to 60 metres in a heel to toe fashion.
These anomalies were identified by a sampling program that covered only 20% of the total land package. Recent AC drilling results at the southern end of the Mankouke permit indicates a 7-km long exploration corridor at Mankouke. This area will be a priority drilling target in the next exploration program.
On Friday, Isenor said there are many AC assays yet to be released and these will be available in the coming weeks. “We are extremely pleased our approach to exploration in this area has been successful,” he said. “It is early days and additional drilling is part of an obvious next step and extensive follow up drilling is required.”