By Yange Ikyaa
Thor Explorations Limited has announced the initial drilling results from a reconnaissance drilling program that is currently underway at the Company’s Western Prospects that are located approximately 15 kilometers to the west of the Company’s wholly owned Segilola Gold Mine in Nigeria.
Thor, is a West African focussed minerals exploration, development and mining company. In Nigeria, the Company recently brought the Segilola Gold Mine into operation, producing 98,008 ounces of gold in 2022, its first calendar year of operation, and is actively progressing with gold exploration and assessing other high-value mineral resource opportunities in the country.
The Company is also advancing the Douta Gold Project in Senegal, which currently comprises an Inferred Resource of 730,000 ounces of gold, grading at 1.53 grammes / ton.
High grade gold anomalism has been defined by exploratory geochemical programs comprising soil/auger and rock chip sampling. The first holes of the initial drilling program on the primary geochemical target have returned high grade gold intersections from a sub-vertical narrow quartz vein system.
Parts of this vein system contain grades of 1m at 310g/tAu, which equates to 10 ounces of gold per ton. Thor says there are several additional targets in the area that require drill testing, and that there is potential for additional high-grade deposits in this area.
With further exploration success, this area may provide an important satellite source of high-grade material for the Segilola Gold Mine
Segun Lawson, President & CEO, said “I am thrilled to announce these drilling results that include an intersection grading 227g/tAu over a length of 2m. Within this intersection is a 1m length that carries ten ounces per ton.
“As you would expect, visible gold is prevalent throughout the core from this and the other significant intervals. These results are the culmination of systematic and persistent exploration work leading to the discovery of this high-grade mineralisation.
“Importantly, it demonstrates the significant exploration potential outside of the immediate Segilola mine precinct. Our strategy is to develop the Western Prospects together with other such opportunities located within a 25km radius of Segilola, to provide a pipeline of high-grade material that will extend the current 4 years of production at Segilola.”
The Western JV Prospects or the “Western Prospects,” are located about 15 kilometers directly west from the Segilola Gold Mine and cover mostly amphibolitic rocks that contrast with the more gneissic terrain that is developed at Segilola itself.
The Western Prospects comprise several exploration permits that are held under exercised option agreements. The area is easily accessed through a series of sealed roads and gravel tracks.
To date, exploration has comprised grid-based soil geochemical sampling using a hand-held auger drill and rock chip sampling of exposures located mostly inside shallow, abandoned, artisanal diggings. In the central parts of the Western Prospects, the sampling has defined an area measuring approximately 3 kilometers along strike and 1 kilometer wide that is oriented in a north-westerly direction.