Oriole Resources PLC readies for drilling in Cameroon

What does Oriole Resources do?

Oriole Resources PLC (LON:ORR) is a resources exploration and development specialist with a focus on gold.

The company has a long-standing presence in West Africa and Turkey and has lately decided to focus on Cameroon.

Chief executive Tim Livesey is an experienced mining professional with a long track record in the industry.

Other well-known faces in the junior mining space, notably John McGloin, formerly of Amara and now of Perseus, and David Pelham, one of the geological brains behind Hummingbird’s early exploration success, are also on the board.

What does Oriole Resources own?

Cameroon: Oriole’s own focus is early-stage gold exploration in Cameroon and the Bibemi and Wapouzé projects in particular.

These projects lie over highly prospective neoproterozoic Pan-African greenstone belts in north-eastern Cameroon.

Oriole has the option to earn a 90% interest by spending US$3.12mln.

Under the terms of the option agreement, Oriole will earn an initial 51% of both projects by funding US$1.56mln of exploration over the next two years.

Thereafter, Oriole can earn a further 39% for an additional U$1.56mln exploration expenditure, or on the completion of a pre-feasibility study on at least one of the projects, over the subsequent two years.

Senegal: The company also has a significant stake in the more advanced Dalafin gold project in Senegal, where IAMGOLD has the option to spend US$8mln to earn a 70% interest.

Elsewhere: In addition, Oriole holds interests and royalties in companies operating throughout Africa and Turkey and continues to assess new gold and base metal opportunities in both regions.

The Muratdere copper-molybdenum-gold deposit is being advanced towards mine-construction by owner Lodos.

How it’s doing

Gold exploration in Africa is accelerating rapidly with the rise in the price of the precious metal. 

In November, Oriole said the drill rig and equipment for a planned exploration programme at the Bibemi gold project in Cameroon was being mobilised to site.

The rig is expected to arrive in Cameroon in early December, around three weeks later than originally expected as a result of coronavirus (COVID-19) related border restrictions.

Nonetheless, Oriole said it still expects to kick-off the drill programme before the end of 2020, as planned.

IAMGOLD, meanwhile, is undertaking a three-year exploration programme as part of its plans to meet its earn-in commitments.

It recently restarted a 10,000-metre (m) air core (AC) drilling programme at the Senala project in Senegal.

Prior to the seasonal rains, IAMGOLD had already completed 1,300m AC drilling at the northernmost Faré prospect.

What the boss says: Tim Livesey, chief executive  

“A programme of 17 holes for 1,940 metres has already been designed but results from the recently completed mapping programmes to test the north-eastern and south-western extensions at Bakassi are expected to deliver further drill targets.

“We are confident that Bibemi will continue to build on the good results we’ve already yielded from the rock chip sampling and trenching programmes, and it will be great to get some vertical extension to the significant trends that the team have already identified on surface.”