Located in Eastern Senegal and covering 53.2km2 over the gold-bearing Kédougou-Kéniéba Inlier, Diamba Sud is the Company’s flagship project. Consisting of two blocks (DS1 & DS2) joined by a narrow strip, the Diamba Sud Project is located to the west of the regionally significant Senegal-Mali Shear Zone (“SMSZ”).
World-class gold deposits and mines including; Loulo (Barrick), Gounkoto (Barrick), Sadiola (IAMGold/Anglo Gold), Yatela (IAMGold/Anglogold) and Fekola (B2Gold) are all adjacent or proximal to the SMSZ on parallel structures or splays. Critically, Diamba Sud is proximal to the SMSZ, 7km due west of Barrick’s Gounkoto mine in Mali on the underexplored western side, in Senegal.
Proximity to world class deposits, combined with the minimal historical exploration, makes Diamba Sud highly prospective for orogenic gold mineralisation. This prospectivity has been established through auger drilling undertaken by the Company since acquiring the properties in 2017.
Previous Exploration
Previous Auger drilling by Chesser at Diamba Sud has identified numerous high-grade geochemical gold anomalies on the northern block of the Project (DS1). The anomalies range from high-grade zones to long, low-order linear features.
Regional Geology
The Diamba Sud exploration permit is located within the highly prospective Kédougou-Kéniéba Inlier which forms part of the Paleoproterozoic age Birimian Terrane of the West African Craton. Over 35 million ounces of gold has been discovered over the last 23 years within this inlier. The permit lies within the felsic volcanics and sediments of the Faleme Series, bound by the sediment-dominated Diale-Dalema Supergroup to the west and the SMSZ and the Kofi Series to the east.
The Faleme and Diale-Dalema supracrustal sequences are intruded by a series of variably deformed granitoid intrusions. Lithologies in the region are affected mainly by lower green schist grade metamorphism.
Local Geology
The Faleme Series is a northerly trending greenstone belt consisting of felsic volcanics and sedimentary units (typically carbonates). It is intruded by calk-alkaline granitoids. The Project lies to almost the immediate west of the SMSZ, which is a large terrane bounding shear zone. The main structural trend is north to north-east, associated with greenstone metamorphism. These structures are often localised along contacts of granitoids and greenstones. The Birimian late orogenic gold mineralisation is associated with shearing associated with this north to north east shearing.
The calk-alkaline granitoid intrusives are visible in the regional airborne TEMPEST electromagnetic survey as low resistivity units. The DS1 block covers an area where the intrusive appears to be buried, based on the mottled resistance and lack of outcrop.
Mineralisation
Auger drilling to test the saprolite has been completed over the project, with infill and follow-up deeper auger completed over initial anomalous gold values. These have identified a large number of gold anomalous zones within DS1. The highest grade responses form discrete zones that delineate a broad ring-like response, some 4.5km by 4km in size. This is interpreted to be associated with the inferred contact of a buried granitoid and localised structures. The areas of immediate focus are;
- Northern Arc Target: a NE trending 2.5km by 1km anomaly marking the northern arc of the ring-like anomaly, possibly related to the contact of an inferred granitoid intrusive and greenstone rocks. Maximum gold values in saprolite from auger drilling grade over 100 ppb gold, with consistent sampling of 500-21,100 ppb gold.
- Eastern Flank Target: a NS trending 2.5km by 200m linear feature marking the eastern edge of the ring-like anomaly. This may represent a parallel structure to a set of strong northerly trending structures visible in the inverted 3D aeromagnetic data to the east of the permit boundary, which are interpreted to be associated with the SMSZ.
- Western Flank Target: a NNW trending set of anomalies marking the western flank of the ring-like anomalous zone. Historic drilling on the southern end of this lineament intersected 32m at 1.29 g/t gold from 29m, including 9m at 2.99 g/t gold from 29m. Subsequent to the drilling, artisanal miners have sunk a number of shafts along this trend. A 3D Inversion aeromagnetic model delineates this as a structural lineament, trending northwards into a NE structure.
The Company has commenced drill testing these three anomalies during 2019, seeking to locate the bedrock source of mineralisation and identify the key controls on gold mineralisation.