Gold explorer, Arrow Minerals is aiming to unlock the gold potential at its Vranso project in Burkina Faso with a 6,000 metre reverse circulation, or “RC” drilling program underway testing the extents of known shallow high-grade gold mineralisation. The program is targeting an assortment of high priority targets, including the recently discovered Dassa prospect, in the West African nation.
Vranso lies about 100 kilometres west of the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou. Arrow recently consolidated an impressive 1,300 square kilometres of tenure stretching for more than 85km along the prolific Boromo Belt. Numerous multi-million ounces gold discoveries have been made along the geological structure, including the 4.1 million ounce Bouly deposit and the 3.7 million ounce Bissa deposit.
Interestingly, the Boromo Belt is a subdivision of the world renowned Birimian Greenstone Belt which extends through Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea and Burkina Faso and lays claim to being one of the richest gold provinces in the world.
Following a comprehensive review of historical geochemical, geophysical and geological data the company says about 50 RC drill holes will seek to extend high-grade and shallow gold intercepts at four high priority targets at Vranso including Dassa, Guido, Semapoun and Bantole.
Arrow got off to a flying start with the Dassa discovery last year teasing out two parallel gold systems – Dassa North and Dassa South – which stretch for more than 1,000m and 600m respectively. Drilling intersected a swag of shallow intercepts including 6m going 4.04 grams per tonne gold from 43m, 14m at 3.2 g/t from 23m and 13m at 2.4 g/t from 6m.
To the east of Dassa lies the Guido prospect where past intercepts include 13m at 4.74 g/t gold from 40m and 4m at 4.44 g/t gold from 116m. The mineralised strike at Guido extends for about 3km and is open along strike and at depth, according to the company.
Notably, a maiden JORC 2004 inferred mineral resource containing 139,000 ounces of gold was delineated more than a decade ago.
At Semapoun, some 3km along strike from Guido, historical Rotary Air Blast and RC drilling intersected numerous thick and high-grade gold zones, including 4m at an eye-catching 12.45 g/t gold from 20m and 2m at 7.57 g/t gold from surface.
A further 5km north-east of Semapoun at Bantole, a single northwest-southeast trending line of historical aircore drilling hit shallow gold mineralisation including 4m grading more than 25 g/t gold from 12m.
Curiously, Arrow reports no follow-up drilling has been conducted at either Semapoun or Bantole to date.
The commencement of Arrow’s drilling programme on the Vranso Project is the culmination of a concerted effort, following the identification of an outstanding gold exploration opportunity by the Company. We have consolidated an enviable land position in a prolific gold belt with a huge cache of historical data that has sat dormant in terms of gold exploration for the past 10 years.
Arrow is now pursuing an aggressive exploration campaign to define shallow gold deposits amenable to open pit mining in an area with excellent infrastructure within Burkina Faso. With an experienced and well-funded team in place, a multi-faceted field programme will be executed over the coming months.
With a drill rig actively plumbing the depths of the known gold systems at Vranso, the company says it plans to accelerate other exploration activities including geological mapping, geochemical sampling and geophysical surveys with the aim of defining a pipeline of drill ready targets in a region known to host world-class gold deposits.
