West Africa-focussed gold company Cora Gold will soon start an exploration drill programme at its Madina Foulbé gold permit, within the Kenieba project area in East Senegal.

The company plans to start this programme in the week of April 15 and finishing it in May.

The permit is in close proximity to several tier one gold deposits located within the Mako Geological Belt of the Kédougou-Kéniéba Inlier.

A 2000 m reconnaissance reverse circulation drilling programme has been approved to test for gold mineralisation under the best gold in soil and termite mound anomalies, the company says.

Cora adds that drilling will test specific and highly prospective targets, some of which have never been drill tested previously.

The aim of the drill programme is not to define mineral resources, but to test conceptual targets which, if successful, would require additional drill programmes to define the size and grade of the mineralisation and allow for mineral resources to be reported in the future.

At the Tambor anomaly, recent field visits confirmed multiple intrusive lithologies over the entire anomaly and that mineralisation is hosted by well-developed sheeted and stockwork quartz vein sets within, says Cora.

Pegmatite veins are commonly observed with gold mineralisation occurring also at their contacts, the company notes.

Weathering of the intrusive rocks is weakly developed with the fresh rock commonly found within a few metres from surface, with no laterite formation formed, the gold in soil anomaly is considered indicative of the underlying gold mineralisation within the host intrusive rocks.

"We are delighted to restart work at Madina Foulbé, where previous exploration works only scratched the surface in terms of evaluating the potential size and scale of the in-situ gold mineralisation of the Tambor target.

“The geological team is excited about the project's geological potential given its proximity to several operating mines, while Senegal's favourable mining jurisdiction and successful project development history further enhance its prospects,” says Cora CEO Bert Monro.