Oriole Resources PLC reaches agreement with IAMGOLD Corp over exploration funding

() said it reached an agreement with joint venture partner  (IAMGOLD) over funding the exploration work at the Senala gold project in Senegal.

IAMGOLD will carry forward an underspend of US$172,000 from the third year of exploration work into Year 4 and proposed a spending programme covering the shortfall and meeting the Year 4 commitment of US$1.5mln before 28 February, 2022.

“We are very pleased to have completed our review and approval of IAMGOLD’s Year 4 programme at Senala and to have reached a simple resolution with regard to the Year 3 underspend,” said Oriole Resources chief executive Tim Livesey. “A roll up of the underspend into Year 4, to be focused on the upcoming reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling programmes, offered the best value to us and so we were happy to accept the proposal from IAMGOLD to do this.”

Completion of the funding will see IAMGOLD earn the option to acquire a 51% interest in the project. IAMGOLD has an option to spend up to US$8mln to earn a 70% interest.

The funds will be used to undertake a two-phase work programme:

The first phase will comprise of a planned 5,000 metres of RC drilling and 1,000 metres of diamond drilling at the northern most Faré prospect. This work is now scheduled for completion before the end of the second quarter of 2021.

The second phase – 5,000 metres of RC drilling and 600 metres of diamond drilling – will be focused on re-testing the system at the southernmost Madina Bafé prospect, where previous drilling by the company had returned 9.60 metres at 16.08 grammes per tonne gold.

“The programmes will, as always, be led by results, but it’s very encouraging to see the exploration team planning to continue development of the potential stand-alone mine target at Faré, as well as expand their drilling of the potential Boto satellite mineralisation at Madina Bafé,” said Livesey.

“Meanwhile, at Oriole, we look forward to maintaining our focus on Cameroon through our ongoing maiden drill programme at Bibemi and at the newly-granted Central Licence Package, where a programme of regional stream sediment sampling is scheduled to commence next quarter,” he added.

In a separate statement AIM-listed Oriole provided an update on its 11.80% interest in Thani Stratex Djibouti Ltd (TSD), where African Minerals Exploration & Development Fund III (AMED Fund III) is managing and funding a multi-million-dollar exploration programme at three low-sulphidation epithermal gold projects in the East African Rift Valley.

Further limited drilling and surface grab sampling results from Phase 1 exploration at the Hesdaba project retuned a best intersection of 1.00 metre at 2.1 grammes a tonne (g/t) gold and a single sample of 7.62 g/t gold, both from the Caravan prospect.