Tengrela West Project
Apollo earning up to 80%.
Location & Geology
Tengrela West comprises two contiguous permits with a combined area of 1,000km2. Apollo has the right to earn up to 80% of each permit through individual partnership agreements between 100% owned subsidiary Aspire Minerals Côte d’Ivoire and local company Golden Oriole Côte d’Ivoire.
The project is situated less than 5km to the west of Perseus Mining’s 1.2Moz Sissingue discovery, and 25km to the southwest of Resolute Mining’s Syama operation in Mali – a mine with a production history of over 5Moz with some 5.8Moz remaining in resources. The regional setting suggests greenfield prospectivity with promising structural targets, while shallow artisanal workings confirm the presence of gold mineralisation in the laterite profile. Like Korhogo the project is characterised by widespread laterite cover overlying predominantly meta-sedimentary rocks that have been intruded by local granitoid bodies, and transacted by north-south trending shear structures.
Regional geological setting and mineralisation Tengrela West Project
The main service town is Tengrela, lying in the northern part of the permit. Access is by good paved road from Abidjan via Korhogo, then by all-weather gravel roads. There is a small airstrip immediately east of Tengrela suitable only for light aircraft. Within the permit, there is good access along dirt tracks. The permits lie within savannah grasslands with low scrub and stands of small trees.
Past Exploration
Apollo considers Tengrela West an early-stage property in a strongly prospective setting but with little evidence of previous exploration activity. In order to build first-pass geochemical information a total of 846 first-pass LAG samples were collected from surface material close to access tracks, and assayed during 2010. Anomalous results were returned in several sites and a validation infill lag sampling program has been carried out over these areas.
Within the Aspire Tengrela West permits promising structural targets including shear corridors and internal granite intrusions point to greenfield prospectivity, while artisanal workings confirm the presence of gold mineralisation.
Shallow historical artisanal workings Tengrela West Project
Typical shallow artisanal digging to access mineralised lateritic gravels Tengrela West Project
At Perseus’s Kanakono prospect, 4km to the east of the project high grade drill intercepts of up to 16m @ 15.2g/t Au have been obtained around the margin of a late-stage granite. The strike extensions of the same granite into the project area is seen as a high-quality target for initial geochemical drilling work.
Future Exploration & Objectives
Significant areas of the Tengrela West area are overlain by a blanket of lateritic material, a setting that restricts the effectiveness of surface geochemical sampling. Despite this artisanal miners have extracted alluvial gold gravels in the base of the laterite profile in places, pointing to local gold sources. The company considers it will require the application of modern drill-based geochemical exploration to fully assess the project’s potential, with drill-targeting based on geological interpretation, artisanal workings and geophysical data. Auger and or RAB drilling is planned as permitting allows.
Typical lateritic profile on weathered bedrock Tengrela Project
