Arrow Minerals has RC drill spinning in 6,000-metre campaign at Vranso in Burkina Faso

Arrow Minerals Ltd - Arrow Minerals has RC drill spinning in 6,000-metre campaign at Vranso in Burkina Faso


Arrow Minerals Ltd (ASX:AMD) has the reverse circulation drill spinning in a 6,000-metre drilling program at the Vranso Project, Burkina Faso, to systematically test for extensive shallow high-grade gold mineralisation at four prospects.

These advanced stage drill-ready prospects – Dassa, Guido, Semapoun and Bantole – are within a 20-kilometres radius of the Perkoa Zinc Mine and were identified following a data compilation and integration exercise.

This work captured historical geochemical, geophysical and geological information from the project that is within the gold-bearing Palaeoproterozoic Birimian Greenstone belt.

"Gold exploration opportunity"

Arrow’s managing director Howard Golden said: “The commencement of Arrow’s drilling program on the Vranso Project is the culmination of a concerted effort, following the identification of an outstanding gold exploration opportunity by the company.

"We have consolidated an enviable land position in a prolific gold belt with a huge cache of historical data that has sat dormant in terms of gold exploration for the past 10 years.”

Vranso Project in central Burkina Faso is in the underexplored gold-bearing Paleoproterozoic Birimian Greenstone Belt.

"Arrow is now pursuing an aggressive exploration campaign to define shallow gold deposits amenable to open pit mining in an area with excellent infrastructure within Burkina Faso,” Golden said.

“With an experienced and well-funded team in place, a multi-faceted field program will be executed over the coming months.”

Following up gold results

The RC drill program is expected to comprise about 50 holes to follow up previous results:

  • Dassa – previous best of 33 metres at 1.9 g/t gold and 17 metres at 3.3 g/t;
  • Guido – 13 metres at 4.7 g/t and 12 metres at 1.9 g/t;
  • Semapoun – 4 metres at 12.5 g/t and 6 metres at 3.7 g/t; and
  • Bantole – 4 metres at >25 g/t and 4 metres at 1.6 g/t.

Guido, Semapoun and Bantole prospects are within 20 kilometres of the central Perkoa Zinc Mine processing facility with Dassa just to the west of Poa.

In prolific region

Vranso project is 100 kilometres west of the capital Ouagadougou and comprises 10 semi-contiguous exploration permits extending for more than 80 kilometres along the main NE-SW trending Boromo Shear Zone, host to numerous multi-million-ounce gold deposits including Bissa, Bouly, Poura and Batie West.

The project covers more than 1,300 square kilometres of the richly gold endowed Paleoproterozoic Birimian Greenstone Belt, the majority of which is yet to be evaluated using modern gold exploration techniques.

This first phase of Arrow's multi-faceted exploration program is anticipated to take six-months to complete and includes RC drilling, geological mapping, stream and soil geochemical sampling, airborne and ground geophysical surveys, and diamond drilling to be completed by Arrow’s local team along with technical director Hugh Bresser.

Results will be released as the drilling progresses with completion of the drilling expected in early 2022.