Oriole acquires new Cameroon gold licences

Oriole Resources plc said it had expanded its Cameroon portfolio with five new gold licences and a further three granted to its partner.

The five licences (Tenekou, Niambaran, Pokor, Ndom and Mbe) in Central Cameroon are located to the west of the regional capital, Ngaoundéré. They were granted through the company’s 90%-owned subsidiary Oriole Cameroon SARL.

The other three (Mana, Dogon and Sanga) were awarded to Oriole’s partner Reservoir Minerals Cameroon Sarl, a subsidiary of Bureau d’Etudes et d’Investigations Géologico-minières, Géotechniques et Géophysiques SARL (BEIG3).

BEIG3 will have a 10% free-carried interest in each of the three licences granted to Reservoir Minerals Cameroon Sarl, until the definition of a minimum measured and indicated resource of 50,000 oz of gold.

Oriole has the remaining beneficial interest and funding will then be pro rata on a contribute or dilute basis.

EXPANSION

The licences’ total area represents a contiguous, district-scale land package covering 3,592km² of highly prospective geological terrane.

Oriole said that an initial programme of desktop remote sensing and regional-scale stream sediment sampling would start during the first half of 2021 to identify targets.

The miner added that the licences had significantly expanded the company’s operational base in Cameroon and complemented the more advanced exploration programmes at the Bibemi and Wapouzé.

All licences will be for an initial three years and are renewable three times for a term of two years each.

ATTRIBUTES

“As first movers in Cameroon, and with further advanced exploration ongoing at our Bibemi and Wapouzé projects in the north of the country, we are extremely pleased to have received formal approval for these additional new licences in central Cameroon,” said Oriole chief executive Tim Livesey.

“Based on our in-house prospectivity analysis in 2019, this district-scale grassroots licence package was identified as having significant potential to host orogenic-type gold mineralisation.

“Key geological attributes of the district include suitable host rock geology, a favourable structural location covering deep crustal structures, and historic evidence of gold mineralisation.

“We believe that this contiguous package of nearly 3,600 km^₂, offers exciting greenfield potential and we look forward to commencing our first-pass exploration programmes during the first half of the year.”