African Gold Group renews its Kobada-Est exploration permit
African Gold Group is pleased to announce that the Kobada-Est exploration permit has been renewed and extended for a period of three years (expiration on 06 October 2024) by the Ministry of Mines of the Republic of Mali.
Kobada-Est exploration permit covers an area of 7,700 hectares and forms part of the Kobada Gold Project`s highly prospective contiguous exploration and mining permits, totalling 25,770 hectares in the southern Mali. Past historical drilling programs, geophysics and soil geochemistry have identified mineralized shear zones that represent an opportunity to expand the resource base for the Kobada project.
The Kobada-Est exploration permit is a part of a group of permits located on the western flank of the Bougouni basin covering an area of 7,700 hectares. The shear zones discovered in the Kobada-Est concession form a part of the combined 55 km shear strikes, identified across the three concessions from previous geophysics and soil geochemistry.
The company recently announced the renewal of its Faraba exploration permit for a further three years.
Recent trenching undertaken at Kobada-Est highlighted positive results for gold mineralisation. The three trenches, which total 260 m, were excavated in or just east of the delineated Kobada-Est shear zone as defined by the recent reinterpretation of the previous geophysics. Two of the three trenches intersected mineralisation in varying degrees. Trench three, the trench interpreted to be located in the Kobada-Est Shear zone had the best mineralisation. The trench was 30 m in length of which 22 m was mineralised. The grade over the mineralised width was 1.4 g/t over 16 m or 1.1 g/t over 22 m. Trench two, which is believed to be located just east of the shear, was also mineralised but the mineralisation zone was narrow and associated with single veins. The trenches were sighted based on artisanal mining pits, geophysics and soil geochemical anomalies.
The extension of the exploration permit will allow the Company to proceed with the development of new and extended open pit opportunities at Kobada-Est. Successful exploration of these potential shear zones may lead to the extension of Kobada Gold Project`s mine life.
The Company continues to seek out additional opportunities through organic growth and exploration. Development of the Kobada-Est exploration permit and expansion of the existing resource at Kobada permit are among several organic growth projects in Company`s pipeline. The Company believes that progressing organic growth is key to delivering shareholder value over the long-term, and the receipt of consents at Kobada-Est is another step along a critical path to achieving this goal.
The upside potential for the Kobada, over and above the current mineral resource of the Project set out in the NI 43-101 technical report of the Company titled “NI 43-101 Technical Report on Kobada Gold Project in Mali” with an effective date of June 17, 2020 (the “2020 DFS”), lies within the various target shear zones, an estimated 55 km strike, that have been identified by the previous exploration activities. The current mineral resource for the Project area is limited to a portion of the main Kobada shear which has been interpreted to extend into the Faraba permit north of Kobada, as the Foroko North shear, as shown in the figure.
To date however, limited exploration has been completed on the Kobada-Est permit area as the focus has been on upgrading and increasing the Kobada mineral resource and exploratory drilling at the Gosso target. As part of its ongoing, and dynamic exploration programme, additional work will be carried out in 2022 to improve the understanding of the shear zone extensions into the Kobada-Est deposit.
