Termite mounds are a preferred site for initial gold prospecting. Here, Canadian geologist Jon North, President of North Atlantic Nickel, is posing next to a termite mound in southern Mali, which is to become a sample for his company.

© afrol News/North Atlantic Nickel

afrol News, 14 January - Gold mining operations in Mali are entering the new year with a row of successes. The Canadian company North Atlantic Nickel today reports good new from three of its mining projects in Mali, including an entirely new gold discovery.

Jon North, President and CEO of North Atlantic Nickel, today reports of a new gold discovery made at the company's Diokeba Project in Mali. In addition, a 50 meter wide mineralised zone has been intersected at the Kantela Project and drilling at the Foulalaba Project has confirmed and extended the known gold zone.

At the Diokeba Project in the extreme west of Mali - close to the Senegalese border - a new gold discovery has been made. "Sixty-six holes (3,102 meters) in a reconnaissance pattern of drilling tested two geochemical anomalies on the 57 square km property," Mr North says in a statement issued today.

These drill holes were 15 km southeast and along strike of the company's neighbouring property named Kantela. The drill hole layout at Diokeba had been designed to test an area of artisanal workings and a peripheral area of geochemical anomalies in soil and termite mounds, Mr North added.

- These are the first holes ever drilled on the property, according to Mr North. The intersections varied from low to high grade gold concentration, up to 24.65 grams gold per tonne over 12 meters and are the first documented discoveries of gold in bedrock on the property. Future drilling was to test the strike extent and continuity of gold nearby.

Also at the neighbouring Kantela property, North Atlantic has intersected a 50 meter wide mineralised zone. Results from the zones indicate that there are several high grade intersections on the property.

The promising results were to "require follow up drilling subsequent to additional geophysical surveying," Mr North commented. The Kantela property already is known to have three gold-bearing zones, which were discovered after drilling last year.

At the Foulalaba Project - southern Mali, close to the Ivorian border - recent drilling of fourteen holes had confirmed and extended the known gold zone, the North Atlantic CEO said.

The current drilling at Foulalaba had tested a 300 meter strike length of gold-bearing stratigraphy. The results had indicated that "the grade and thickness of the mineralised zone increases to the south," said Mr North. Also here, further sampling and drilling was to be completed to determine the nature and extent of the gold zones intersected.

For Mali, the increased gold mining activities in the extreme west and south of the country - where North Atlantic is becoming one of the principal players - are turning into a new source of revenues. While traditionally dependent on agriculture and livestock, the Bamako government keenly assists the emerging mining industry to diversify its economy.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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