Bibemi is an early-stage gold exploration project, covering highly prospective Neoproterozoic Pan-African greenstone belts in north-eastern Cameroon. The Company has an 82.2% interest.
Bibemi (177 km2) is the Company’s most advanced project in Cameroon, where an orogenic gold system has been identified over a strike length of almost 12 km. Associated with northeast-trending shear zones, mineralisation is predominantly hosted by quartz and quartz-tourmaline veins that have formed in the contact zone between tonalite (to the west) and meta-volcanic schist (to the east).
To date the Company has completed four phases of diamond drilling for 6,685.40m in 54 holes. Holes were planned to target the depth extension of surface mineralisation and zones of stacked quartz veins at four key prospects, namely Bakassi Zone 1, Bakassi Zone 2, Lawa East, and Lawa West. A Mineral Resource for the Bakassi Zone 1 prospect has been estimated at 5.1 million tonnes grading 2.30 g/t Au for 375,000 oz Au in the JORC Inferred category.
BCM International Limited (‘BCM’) is earning up to a 50% interest in the Bibemi project by funding a Signature payment of US$500k, up to US$4m in exploration expenditure and JORC resource-based success payments. A similar deal at Mbe (part of the Central Licence Package) is expected to be completed before the end of January 2024 – please see here for further details.
The Company’s exploration to date has identified shear-hosted gold mineralisation at four main prospects – Bakassi Zone 1, Bakassi Zone 2, Lawa West and Lawa East – within a circa 12 km-long system at surface. Initial rock-chip sampling returned values of up to 135.4 g/t Au from the Bakassi Zone 1 prospect, 35.9 g/t Au from Bakassi Zone 2 and 22.38 g/t Au from Lawa East. During 2019, the Company also completed over 12,500m trenching with best results of up to 9.00m grading 3.14 g/t Au returned from Bakassi Zone 1.
Since Q1-2021, the Company has completed four phases of diamond drilling at the Project for a total of 6,685.40m in 54 holes.
Bakassi Zone 1
The majority of the drilling has been focussed on a circa 1 km section at the southern end of the Bakassi Zone 1 and has delivered best intersections of 14.80m grading 4.27 g/t Au and 7.70m grading 2.74 g/t Au (hole BBDD050), 6.50m grading 3.92 g/t Au (hole BBDD034), 5.20m grading 1.97 g/t Au (hole BBDD031), and 9.20m grading 1.31 g/t Au (hole BBDD042). The mineralised corridor at Bakassi Zone 1 has been confirmed up to 150m wide and contains a package of sub-vertical quartz-tourmaline veins as well as extensional, sub-horizontal quartz veins.
The reported intersections are predominantly associated with northeast-trending, laminated (shear-parallel) quartz-tourmaline veins that dip steeply to the southeast and their interaction with flatter-lying extensional quartz veins that are sub-horizontal to shallowly east-dipping. The shear veins can range from a few centimetres to over a metre in width, with the high-grade ore shoots likely to plunge in a north-easterly direction, being parallel to the intersection of the vein sets.
Phase 4 diamond drilling (BBDD050 to BBDD054 and an extension to BBDD034) was completed in July 2022 for 531.30m. Holes BBDD050 and BBDD052 were drilled vertically at Bakassi Zone 1 to target the extensional quartz veins into order to assess their potential to enhance the volume of gold mineralisation within the system. BBDD050 in particular encountered multiple extensional veins with wide, sulphide-rich alteration haloes that have delivered broad mineralised intervals including 14.80m grading 4.27 g/t Au. This supports the Company’s belief that there is good potential for mineable widths of mineralisation at the project. The extension of BBDD034 was completed to test the down-dip continuity of shear-related veining that returned 2.50m grading 8.90 g/t Au in Phase 3-hole BBDD045. The extensional drilling yielded 2.00m grading 39.42 g/t Au from 160.00m.
In December 2022, the Company reported a maiden JORC Mineral Resource Estimate for Bakassi Zone 1 of 4.3 million tonnes grading 2.19 g/t Au for approximately 305,000 oz Au in the JORC Inferred Resources category. This estimate was defined within a US$1,800/oz gold price pit shell.
In January 2024, this MRE was updated as part of ongoing technical studies to support the application for an exploitation licence later in 2024. The MRE for Bakassi Zone 1 now stands at 5.1 million tonnes grading 2.30 g/t Au for approximately 375,000 oz Au in the JORC Inferred Resources category, based on a 0.45 g/t Au cut off and within a US$2,000/oz gold price pit shell. The approximate 23% increase in the resource inventory largely reflects the robust improvement in the mid- to long-term gold price forecasts.
Gross | Net Attributable (82.2%) | ||||||||
Material | Classification | Tonnage | Grade (g/t Au) | Total contained gold (oz) | Tonnage | Grade (g/t Au) | Total contained gold (oz) | ||
Oxide | Inferred | 200,000 | 1.30 | 7,000 | 164,400 | 1.30 | 5,754 | ||
Fresh | Inferred | 4,100,000 | 2.33 | 368,000 | 4,027,800 | 2.33 | 302,496 | ||
Total | Inferred | 5,100,000 | 2.30 | 375,000 | 4,192,200 | 2.30 | 308,250 |
The Resource has been estimated using 28 diamond holes for a total of 3,840m. It has been modelled over a strike length of 1,268m and to a depth of 263m below surface, using a cut-off grade of 0.45 g/t Au and a top-cut of 20 g/t Au.
The Company ia currently processing geophysics (magnetic) survey data to aid drill targeting (at all four prospects) as well as future Resource-expansion activities.
Lawa Prospects
At the southernmost targets, Lawa West and Lawa East, mineralisation appears to be related to the intersection of the dominant north-northeast shears in Bakassi 1 and Bakassi 2 with a northeast-trending structure. The structural intersection supports the magnetic imagery across the zone, and appears to correlate with the margin of a granitic body. Visible gold was observed in four of the Phase 1 drill holes, namely BBDD019 (Lawa West), BBDD014 and BBDD020 (Lawa East) and BBDD024 (Bakassi Zone 2). BBDD020 and BBDD024 returned 0.80m grading 27.90 g/t Au and 0.85m grading 4.59 g/t Au respectively. At Lawa West, closely-spaced quartz veins up to 1.30m wide have developed, and these are commonly sheared and/or brecciated with fractures filled with sulphides, signifying multiple phases of deformation and fluid flow.
Hole BBDD053 was drilled at Lawa East prospect, where Phase 1 diamond drilling delivered visible gold related to an intersection of 0.80m grading 27.90 g/t Au. Based on structural evidence observed in that hole and in veins exposed by recent artisanal workings, BBDD053 was drilled towards 250 degrees and has delivered a wider, high-grade interval of 3.00m grading 12.30 g/t Au from 58.00m. Importantly, at Lawa East, mineralisation is also observed within the host rock (mafic schist) rather than discrete quartz veins as found elsewhere within the licence, supporting an interpretation of more pervasive fluid flow and gold deposition.
A 100m x 100m infill soil sampling programme was completed in Q4-2021 and covered the southern extension of the Bakassi Zone 1 and Bakassi Zone 2 zones, towards the Lawa East and Lawa West prospects. Results delivered grades of up to 271 ppb Au and outlined a well-constrained linear gold-in-soil anomaly (>10 ppb Au) extending over c.3km along-strike from Bakassi Zone 1, towards the Lawa West prospect. This is encouraging as there are limited outcropping quartz veins in this area, offering the potential for the discovery of ‘blind’ mineralisation as has also been observed during the drilling programmes. The highest-grade anomalism was returned from a c.750m-long zone at Lawa West and a c.600m-long anomaly at Lawa East, close to the previously reported maiden drilling intersections of 0.80m grading 27.90 g/t Au and 1.00m grading 1.35 g/t Au, the former of which was associated with visible gold mineralisation. During Phase 3 drilling at Bakassi Zone 1, a northwest-trending fault has been intersected by the southernmost fence line (holes BBDD041 and BBDD043), that appears to have shifted the mineralised structure c.200m to the west. The infill soil geochemistry suggests a further westward offset of c. 600m just to the north of Lawa West.
A geomagnetic survey has also recently been completed at Bibemi, covering the four key prospects. The survey was completed at a line spacing of 100m (lines orientated towards N140 degrees) for an image resolution of 25m. Interpretation of the data, to generate three-dimensional magnetic susceptibility cross-sections to a depth of 200m below surface, will be completed by Australia-based Terra Resources during 2023 and will enable the identification of drill targets, both at Bakassi Zone 1, as well as within the wider licence. In accordance with the Cameroon Mining Code, the Company is also undertaking a series of local-level technical studies, including a baseline environmental and social impact assessment. These studies will continue throughout the remainder of 2023 and will be submitted to the Ministry as part of the project’s annual report for 2023/24.
Subject to completion of the earn-in agreement with BCM, further drilling at the Project is expected to commence in Q1-2024.
The footprint of the area of interest at Bibemi is comparable to the size of the Chriano mining licence area in Ghana.
Bibemi JORC Table 1