Oriole Resources’s (LSE:ORR) early mover advantage in Cameroon seems to have started to pay off.
After studying the structural and geological composition of its eastern Central License Package (CLP) for the last two years, the firm is now moving on to the next stage of unveiling its project’s true precious metal potential.
Indeed, as revealed in early October, it has now identified multiple priority targets that could host several gold anomalies.
The 90%-owned Central License Package gives Oriole control over a region spanning 3,952 km2—that’s half the size of the Kédougou-Kéniéba in eastern Senegal that has a current gold endowment of over 45 million oz.
Oriole’s latest results continue to demonstrate that CLP has a strong association with the northeast-trending Tcholliré-Banyo Shear Zone (TBSZ) corridor.
In fact, one study showed that the TBSZ passes through at least six of Oriole’s licenses in the east and at least one in the west.
For those who don’t know, TBSZ is a dominant regional structure believed to host orogenic-style gold anomalies across central and eastern Africa as well as Brazil.
According to some studies, it is considered one of the most significant structural controls for gold and other metal resources that—if explored properly—could yield very strong returns in the years to come.
Oriole very well recognizes this rare opportunity, and its latest findings will only help it to accelerate its exploration efforts in Q4 of 2021.
Indeed, of all the 503 samples collected in three license regions - Ndom, Pokor, and Mbe – 26 of them returned a grading higher than 10 parts per billion (“ppb”) gold.
Meanwhile, six samples returned grades higher than 50 ppb gold while the highest reported result came from Oriole’s Ndom license where the best samples reported a grade rating of 291 ppb gold.
How it all started
Oriole’s focus on Cameroon started in 2019 when it recognized the country’s gold potential and made the first move to do a nationwide gold prospectivity analysis.
After doing an in-house study, it applied for several licences in the CLP region due to its closer proximity to the TBSZ.
The next step was to complete an independent study across the entire licence package to develop preliminary regional-scale analysis of geology, alteration, and structure.
This led to seven of the eight licences being interpreted as covering predominantly Paleo-Proterozoic and Pan-African (Neo-Proterozoic) rocks, both of which are prospective for orogenic gold.
Then, in Q1 2021, the company's 90%-owned Cameroonian subsidiary, Oriole Cameroon SARL, was granted five new licences (Tenekou, Niambaram, Pokor, Ndom, and Mbe) in central Cameroon before another three new licences (in Mana, Dogon, and Sanga) were granted to its 90%-owned Reservoir Minerals Cameroon SARL.
With an extended land package in tow, the company moved on to a first-pass regional mapping and stream sediment sampling programme focused on sampling active sediments on the primary stream beds at an average density of 0.4 samples per km2..
And excitingly, initial results (for all 376 samples) from the Niambaram and Tenekou licences have identified several anomalies, with a best result of 95 ppb Au, related to the TBSZ corridor.
To date, the team has completed 64% of the programme, with 874 (including eight orientation) samples taken over the Oriole Cameroon SARL licences that cover the east of the package.
All-in-all, Tim Livesey, CEO of Oriole Resources believes the company’s work in the region supports its initial view that Cameroon is a new frontier for gold exploration.
The first operator of the CLP licenses and why it’s a big thing
Thanks to the first mover entry in the Central License Package, Oriole Resources has a great advantage over its respective peers for two main reasons:
- It has already selected a quality package for gold exploration licenses.
- It’s the first operator of the licences in CLP where no known commercial exploration had been conducted previously.
Other companies who recognized this subsequently are now following Oriole’s lead.
From junior exploration companies right up to large multinationals – it seems everyone is now in a race to submit license applications close to the CLP region and along the strike extensions of the TBSZ line.
And it could just be the beginning.
More and more players are expected to come soon and make the entire area busier than ever.
But Oriole is confident that its early mover position will help it dominate the region for months and years to come.
A bet worth taking
Apart from the CLP project, Oriole has several interests and royalties in companies operating throughout Africa and Turkey.
Likewise, its highly experienced team has a proven track record of discovering, exploring, and developing world-class assets as well as delivering shareholder value through multi-million-dollar project and company-level transactions.
The team is always looking for promising projects that could deliver future cash flow, which the firm uses to continue to assess new opportunities.
Investors looking to bet on promising exploration companies will find Oriole an extremely lucrative target.
Author: Mining Maven
The Author does not hold any position in the stock(s) and/or financial instrument(s) mentioned in the piece.
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MiningMaven Ltd, the owner of MiningMaven.com, has not been paid for the production of this piece by the company or companies mentioned above.
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