EXCLUSIVE: Canadian Mineral Exploration Firm Pasofino Gold Completes Drilling At 'Bukon Jedeh' Gold Project In Liberia

On Monday, Pasofino Gold Limited EFRGF announced that it had completed its diamond core drilling program, testing the Bukon Jedeh’ gold camp’ within the company’s Dugbe Gold Project, Liberia.

Eleven holes were drilled for 1,328m on the four km long gold camp’.

The company says Bukon Jedeh is a priority target for gold exploration. It is located 10 km southeast of the company’s Dugbe Gold Project, which has a 3.3 Moz Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource Estimate.

Pasofino says several holes contain broad intervals of pyroxene gneiss with sulphide minerals – this is encouraging as gold at the nearby Tuzon and Dugbe F deposits is hosted by a similar lithology.

The drilling was completed on time and within budget. The sampling is 50% complete, and the first batch of samples is set to be sent to the laboratory in early June. The results of this first batch are expected in July 2024.

Bukon Jedeh operations fall within the company’s Dugbe licence area. In 2012, Equator Resources Limited conducted reverse circulation drilling on a grid over part of the Bukon Jedeh area.

However, the most productive pits developed primarily after Equator’s work and are located outside the previously drilled area. Pasofino’s drilling targeted sites along the 4 km long gold ‘corridor.’

Detailed geological logging is ongoing. A preliminary inspection reveals sulphide-bearing zones in over half of the drill holes, several to tens of meters in thickness within pyroxene-bearing gneiss.

The company says the visual results are encouraging, but laboratory analyses are needed to establish whether the rock types are gold-bearing. Analyses will be conducted at ALS in Ghana, with expected results in July 2024.

The 2,302 sq km Dugbe Gold Project is in southern Liberia and situated within the southwest corner of the Birimian Supergroup, which hosts most West African gold deposits.

Two deposits have been identified on the Project: Dugbe F and Tuzon, discovered by Hummingbird Resources Plc in 2009 and 2011, respectively.

Hummingbird conducted significant exploration in the area until 2012, including 74,497 m of diamond coring.

Pasofino drilled an additional 14,584 m at Tuzon and Dugbe during 2021. Both deposits have Mineral Resource Estimates dated 17 November 2021 with total Measured and Indicated of 3.3 Moz with an average grade of 1.37 g/t Au, and 0.6 Moz in Inferred.

Following the completion of the Definitive Feasibility Study in June 2022, a Mineral Reserve Estimate was declared based on the open-pit mining of both deposits over a 14-year Life of Mine.

In 2019, Hummingbird signed a 25-year Mineral Development Agreement with the Government of Liberia, providing the necessary long-term framework and stabilizing taxes and duties.

Under the terms of the agreement, the royalty rate on gold production is 3%, the income tax rate payable is 25%, the fuel duty is reduced by 50%, and the Government of Liberia is granted a free carried interest of 10% in the Project.