Montage Gold (MAU.V) confirmed earlier this month the Ivorian Council of Ministers approved the award of the Sisséplé and Gbongogo exploration permits to the Mankono-Sissédougou joint venture which was announced in June 2022 and should close soon. When all the dust will have settled, Montage Gold will have access to 1,800 square kilometers in exploration permits and an additional 458 square kilometer in exploration permit applications.
This transaction, in combination with the recently granted exploration licenses will greatly expand the Koné Gold Project as the transaction will add about 65 kilometers of strike length of soil anomalies which already resulted in fourteen drill-ready targets. An initial 25,000 meter drill program will start soon and adding more ounces in the vicinity of the Koné Gold Project to the resources and reserves should add value to the project as a whole.
Being awarded the Gbongogo exploration permit is already a step in the right direction as this are already hosts an inferred resource estimate containing 351,000 ounces of gold at an average grade of 2.1 g/t (using a cutoff grade of 1.2 g/t gold). This resource remains open in all directions so it should be feasible for Montage Gold to rapidly add ounces considering this 351,000 ounce resource is based on less than 6,200 meters of drilling. Valuable ounces, as this resource is located just 30 kilometers away from Koné.
Additionally, the company has now disclosed other high grade intervals on the newly acquired permit with a 60 meter interval containing 2.63 g/t gold at Sissédougou an 13 meters containing 26.8 g/t gold at Dokeka as main areas of interest.
Plenty of targets for Montage to drill and Gbongogo will be the subject of 3,000 meters of RC drilling, 1,000 meters of core drilling and 5-10,000 meters of aircore drilling.
Disclosure: The author has no position in Montage Gold. Please read our disclaimer.
