Latest news with #AzumahResources'
West Australian
6 days ago
- Business
- West Australian
Castle ramps up Ghana gold hunt with 410-hole auger sampling program
Castle Minerals is intensifying exploration at its Kandia gold prospect in Ghana's emerging Upper West gold region with a 410-hole power auger drilling campaign. The program aims to extend known gold zones, including at Kandia's 4000 and 8000 prospects, and test new priority targets identified through proprietary high-resolution aeromagnetic survey data. The targets are associated with deeply penetrating regional-scale structures, known to host multi-million-ounce gold systems elsewhere in West Africa. The campaign will span Castle's licences in the Wa East region, covering large tracts of highly prospective Birimian-age terrane, a geological setting renowned for hosting major gold deposits. These deposits often align with deep structures that channel gold-bearing fluids toward the surface. Using its aeromagnetic data, Castle has pinpointed where these structures intersect Birimian rocks and is ranking sites for potential near-surface gold anomalism. Anomalies confirmed by auger drilling will be fast-tracked for earliest possible follow-up using reverse circulation drilling. A key area of focus is the northern part of the Kandia licence, where the contact between Birimian metasediments and a granite intrusive trends northeast toward Azumah Resources' Ghanaian Black Volta gold project, home to multi-million-ounce deposits on the border with Burkina Faso. Previous reverse circulation drilling at Kandia's 4000 and 8000 zones involved 11 holes for 1510 metres of drilling and was successful in extending gold mineralisation and confirming well-defined lodes to about 150m depth. Notable results from that work included 5m at 1 gram per tonne (g/t) gold from 173m depth, 2m at 1.51g/t gold from 176m, 2m at 1.33g/t gold from 137m, 3m at 1.42g/t gold from 82m and a high-grade 1m at 9.91g/t gold from 50m. A structural review by Castle has also identified additional untested targets along the granite-metasediment contact. Castle is also advancing its Kpali gold, 100 kilometres southwest of Kandia, employing its aeromagnetic data to design a targeted auger sampling campaign. Located at the convergence of the Bole-Bolgatanga and Wa-Lawra greenstone belts, Kpali sits near the Ghana-Burkina Faso-Côte d'Ivoire border junction. That location also places Kpali about 75km southwest of a cluster of gold projects in the adjacent nation of Burkina Faso, including AngloGold Ashanti's 5.2-million-ounce Konkera-Batie West gold project as well as the Tonior gold project, owned by Jilbey Burkina, a subsidiary of Russia's Nordgold. The Kpali and the nearby Burkina Faso projects are hosted within extensive West African Birimian greenstones, but while they are not believed to lie along the same geological trend or structure, their geological commonalities reinforce the prospectivity of the vastly under-explored Birimian rocks in Castle's Ghanaian ground. The Birimian terrane extends well beyond Ghana to span Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, and Burkina Faso. It is a powerhouse for gold mineralisation, hosting metamorphosed volcanic, sedimentary and plutonic rocks formed about 2.2 billion years ago. Ghana's northern region is relatively underexplored compared to the country's better-known southern goldfields and is a hotbed for new discoveries, similar to Côte d'Ivoire's thriving exploration scene. This overall geological and structural context enhances Castle's prospects for defining substantial, shallow-depth, bulk-tonnage gold mineralisation at Kpali and Kandia, particularly along the latter's 16km southwest-trending sheared contact with a regional granodiorite intrusion. Castle plans to undertake further reverse circulation drilling at Kandia next month to chase up significant anomalies defined by the auger program. With its strategic focus on Ghana's northern frontier and the richly endowed Birimian geology, Castle is well-positioned to unlock new gold discoveries in this underexplored region. Castle's aggressive exploration at Kandia and Kpali applies cutting-edge data to a world-class prospective geological setting, laying the groundwork for potential game-changing gold discoveries in Ghana's Upper West region. Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact:
West Australian
10-07-2025
- Business
- West Australian
Castle drilling results lift Ghanaian Kandia prospect status
Castle Minerals has confirmed good mineralisation continuity through multiple gold lodes at its Kandia prospect in Ghana from the company's recently completed two-zone, 11-hole, 1510-metre reverse circulation drilling program. The two zones are centred about 4 kilometres apart – the southernmost 4000 Zone has artisanal gold workings. The latest reverse circulation drilling program put nine holes into the 4000 Zone and two holes in the 8000 Zone, which both occupy a 6km-long northeast-striking contact between Birimian metasediments and a major granite intrusion. Four holes at the 4000 Zone explored the depth extent of mineralised zones defined by previous drilling, extending their respective targets to depths of 150m below surface. The drilling delivered a program best result of 1m at 9.91 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 50m and 6m at 1.68g/t gold from 74m. Overall drilling results from the 4000 Zone confirm intercepts from reverse circulation drilling earlier this year, which included 24m at 1.78g/t gold from 139m, with 7m going 3.36g/t gold from 149m. A second earlier hole nailed 11m at 2.26g/t gold from 79m, including 5m at 3.49g/t gold from 82m. North-trending parallel structures appear to define the distribution of mineralisation within the 4000 Zone. Mineralisation, which could be more extensive than previously thought, will be followed up in a later round of drilling. One of the two holes put into the 8000 Zone to follow up previously defined mineralisation delivered 4m at 1.11g/t gold from 23m and 2m at 4.15g/t gold from 38m. Castle's exploration at Kandia is gradually transforming the prospect from just shallow gold anomalism to a series of promising mineralised gold prospects with good depth and strike continuity and plenty of upside. The company's previous geochemical sampling and shallow rotary air blast drilling identified several zones of anomalism arrayed along a prospective northeast-trending corridor, which parallels the contact between western Birimian-age metasediments and a major granite intrusion on its east side. The contact relationship is typical for many gold deposits in West Africa. The largely under-explored Kandia tenure is one of several areas making up Castle's prospective holdings in its Wa tenure, about 90km north of the company's current flagship Kpali project. At its northern end, the Kandia corridor abuts Azumah Resources' Black Volta gold project, containing an estimated 2.8-million-ounce gold resource, which is slated for development this year. Castle is systematically testing Kandia for primary mineralisation and to improve its understanding of the local gold distribution controls. The structural picture has been enhanced by a recently updated interpretive study, employing high-resolution aeromagnetic data from a 2010 survey. The latest interpretation reveals that much of the Kandia granite-metasediment contact is traversed by a series of cross-cutting structures. Significantly, the 4000 and 8000 Zones lie close to two of these cross-cutting structures . Castle tentatively probed the possibility of mineralisation related to the cross-cutting structures in the 4000 Zone with two holes east of the main drilling area but drew a blank with that brief sortie. The theory is still worth pursuing. With less than 16km of the structural corridor tested to date, mostly by shallow rotary air blast or reverse circulation drilling, it is plain that a considerable opportunity exists to identify additional mineralisation along the trend. Encouraged by the initial outcomes from its interpretive work, Castle has extended the study across its entire Wa East tenure to define additional areas of interest outside the Kandia trend. Castle will kick off an auger geochemical sampling campaign in early August to validate existing and new targets at Kandia and proposes a September reverse circulation drilling program to follow up any encouraging targets from that work. The company's key focus at Kandia is to define a significant tonnage of shallow mineralisation in the prospect's multiple, near-surface deposits, buoyed by the potential strategic benefits of the nearby developing Black Volta gold operation. Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact:
