UK company completes drilling programme at Dokwe gold
Ariana Resources plc, the AIM-listed mineral exploration and development company with gold mining interests in Europe, has provided an update on the due-diligence programme being completed on the 1.3 million oz Dokwe Gold Project in Zimbabwe owned by Rockover Holdings Limited.
Highlights:
- 1222 m of diamond drilling completed for due diligence purposes, with two holes drilled at Dokwe North and two holes drilled at Dokwe Central.
- Following a recent site visit, a metallurgical consultant commenced the due diligence assessment of the Dokwe project metallurgy and potential process routes, as defined in a 2022 Pre-Feasibility Study.
- A structural geological consultant is improving understanding of the controls on gold mineralisation; detailed structural logging of the new core is underway to complement this work.
- The geochemical characteristics of the mineralisation are being defined through an extensive pXRF programme on old and new drill cores, with over 15,000 m of core analysed to date.
- Ariana currently holds circa 2.1% of Rockover, and exclusive discussions are ongoing for further collaboration between the companies.
Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:
“We are very pleased to report that our due-diligence drilling programme has now been completed on the feasibility-stage Dokwe Gold Project. The programme was professionally conducted by the Rockover team, who worked collaboratively with our site team in Zimbabwe. Preparation and analysis of the drill core will commence soon, following which these results will be compared to historical project data to confirm our understanding of the grade distribution and controls on gold mineralisation.
“Based on our assessment of the project to date, including recent geological observations from drilling, we are pleased to report that our confidence in the opportunity has only grown. There are very few >1 million oz gold projects globally with straightforward metallurgy, which are at a feasibility stage of development and have more than 95% of their JORC Mineral Resources in the Measured and Indicated categories. It has also been pleasing to note that Zimbabwe is attracting increasing exploration and mining interest. In particular, several foreign-owned AIM/LSE and ASX-listed companies have recently entered the country during the past year alone on a variety of projects, including those focused on gold, nickel, and lithium. Our initial market soundings in the UK and Australia relating to our potential interest in the feasibility-stage development of Dokwe have also been positive.
“Meanwhile, the Rockover and Ariana boards were represented at Indaba 2024 in Cape Town, which coincided with a site visit to Dokwe. During this visit, we discussed our potential future collaboration on the project. We recently introduced Rockover to our operations team and project partners in Türkiye, with a longer-term view that there may be opportunities to collaborate with them specifically on the feasibility-stage development of Dokwe.
“We expect to announce our potential future involvement in Dokwe around the end of 1Q24.”