West Africa-focused explorer and developer Thor Explorations has expanded its operations into Côte d’Ivoire following the signing of a binding sale and purchase agreement with West Africa-focused gold miner Endeavour Mining to acquire a 100% interest in the Guitry Gold exploration project for $100 000 in cash at completion and a 2% net smelter royalty.

The project, comprising a 160 km2 exploration permit, is located in north-western Côte d’Ivoire in an underexplored portion of the highly prospective Boundiali Greenstone Belt, which hosts several high-grade gold deposits – Perseus Mining’s Sissingue gold deposit to the north and Montage Gold’s recent 4-million-ounce Kone gold discovery to the south.

Thor Explorations is engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and production of mineral properties located in Nigeria, Senegal and Burkina Faso.

“As a country, Côte d’Ivoire is a West African gold mining and exploration success story that hosts over 30% of West Africa’s greenstone belts and is proving to be an emerging region for world- class gold discoveries,” enthuses Thor Explorations president and CEO Segun Lawson.

“We are delighted with our low-cost entry into the mining-friendly jurisdiction and believe these two permits provide an excellent platform from which to grow our activities there.”

Guitry, in particular, he says, is an advanced exploration project which is characterised by numerous gold-in-soil geochemical anomalies that have only been partially drill tested by previous explorers.

Early-stage exploration at Guitry completed by Endeavour includes 7 672 soil samples and over 11 000 m of drilling.

Some of the drill results include 12 m grading 10.4 g/t gold, 16 m grading 7.9 g/t, 24 m grading 2.02 g/t and 16 m grading 2.25 g/t.

“The two major prospects, Krakouadiokro and Gbaloukro, are yet to be fully tested with several additional targets yet to be drilled. We plan on carrying out further exploration work and drilling and we are targeting a maiden resource of between 500 000 and 1-million ounces before the end of next year,” says Lawson.

In addition to the acquisition of Guitry, Thor has also entered into an option agreement with Goldridge Resources to earn up to an 80% interest in the Boundiali exploration permit – an early-stage gold exploration permit located in north-west Côte d’Ivoire.

Boundiali contains a number of continuous soil geochemical anomalies that have been generated by Thor for drilling.

The terms of the earn-in include a minimum exploration programme over 36 months and an option fee payment of $150 000, payable within the first 24 months, to earn an initial 51% interest.

The option agreement with Goldridge comes after significant reconnaissance work in the country for prospective projects that can be easily derisked and advanced through further exploration.

The Guitry project is located 220 km west of Abidjan and covers 295 km2 of the prospective Tehini (Birimian) Greenstone Belt, comprising a north-easterly trending sequence of greywacke sediments and volcano-sedimentary schists and andesite with later granitic intrusive located to the north.

The Tehini Greenstone Belt extends northwards into Burkina Faso where it hosts large gold deposits, such as gold major Endeavour Mining’s Hounde mine of 5.2-million ounces and Mana mine of 2.3-million ounces.

Two main prospects were defined by soil geochemistry: Krakouadiokro and Gbaloukro.

A broad gold-in-soil anomaly extends over an 8.5 km north-easterly-trending zone with a continuous 5-km-long anomaly at Krakouadiokro.

Follow-up drilling at Krakouadiokro produced several significant drill intersections from a relatively small area of drilling.

Primary gold mineralisation is still to be systematically targeted and mineralisation appears to be open along strike to the south-west and down dip at the two main prospects. There are three adjoining prospects known as Konan-Yaokro to the north, N’Drikro to the south-west and Lafiisou to the south-east that have yet to be drill tested.

Known gold mineralisation is largely contained within the near-surface, flat-lying supergene horizon which is underlain by sporadic intersections of primary mineralisation.

Only limited drilling of the primary mineralisation has been completed and it remains an attractive ongoing target, concludes Thor.