The Eastern Central Licence Package (CLP) of West Africa-focused gold explorer Oriole Resources’ project in Cameroon was renewed in early July, with its five gold exploration licences in the Adamawa and North regions of Cameroon being granted two-year renewals.

The licences, held through the company’s 90%-owned subsidiary Oriole Cameroon, represent a contiguous, district-scale land package covering 2 266 km2 of highly prospective geological terrane.
The Eastern CLP includes the flagship 80%-owned Mbe licence, where mining services provider BCM International is currently funding up to $4-million in exploration expenditure to earn up to a 50% interest.

A 5 500 m trenching programme is underway over the MB01 area at Mbe, with results anticipated in the third quarter, while a maiden drilling programme is anticipated before year-end.

“Results from this phase of exploration are eagerly awaited prior to planning and commencing the maiden drilling programme later in the year,” says Oriole Resources CEO Martin Rosser.

Oriole retains a 90% interest in the other four Eastern CLP licences – Tenekou, Niambaram, Pokor and Ndom – which share a similar geological setting and potential to Mbe.

Drilling Starts

Elsewhere in Cameroon, Oriole Resources started a Phase 5 drilling programme at its 82.2%-owned Bibemi orogenic gold project in the North region of Cameroon, specifically targeting the Bakassi Zone 1 (BZ1) prospect.

BCM International is also currently funding up to $4-million in exploration expenditure at Bibemi in return for up to a 50% interest in the project.

Exploration at BZ1 will involve a planned 7 060 m worth of drilling in 62 holes, which will initially comprise infill and extensional drilling at the BZ1 mineral resource estimate (MRE) zone, where 4 560 m worth of drilling in 37 holes will focus on upgrading and expanding the current MRE.

The remaining 2 500 m of drilling in 25 holes will test the BZ1 north-east and BZ1 south-west targets, located along-strike of BZ1, where a combination of surface data and subsurface geophysical anomalism has deemed them to be prospective for gold mineralisation.

These holes will focus on identifying additional, near-surface resources within 1 km to 2 km of the existing MRE.

All holes will be drilled to a maximum downhole depth of 160 m from surface and will be a mixture of inclined and vertical holes.

The majority of the BZ1 drilling to date has been focussed on a 1 km section at the southern end of BZ1 and has delivered best intersections of 14.8 m of gold mineralisation grading 4.27 g/t, and 7.7 m grading 2.74 g/t in drill hole BBDD050.

Hole BBDD034 returned 6.5 m of mineralisation grading 3.92 g/t, hole BBDD031 returned 5.2 m grading 1.97 g/t and hole BBDD042 with 9.2 m of gold mineralisation graded 1.31 g/t.

However, as a result of logistical challenges, largely related to the Red Sea shipping crisis, the programme has faced a delayed start and will now be run well into the rainy season, although Oriole Resources reports that provisions have been put in place to make this possible.

“We have faced a number of logistical challenges in getting this programme underway, but . . . the drill rig is now operational and the team is excited to progress the programme as quickly as possible,” says Oriole Resources exploration and business development executive director Claire Bay.

The drilling programme is currently scheduled to take about 4.5 months and results are anticipated during the second half of the year.

“In spite of the delayed start, we have made certain provisions to ensure we are able to continue well into the rainy season and expect the majority of the programme to be completed by the end of the [third quarter of this year],” she adds.

Alongside the BZ1 drilling, Bay also notes that an exploration team has also been completing additional mapping and rock-chip sampling within the wider licence, and will report anything significant that comes from those programmes.