Australia-based metals and mining company Oklo Resources has announced the exercise of its option to acquire a 65% interest in the Sari project in Mali.
Further, the company has an option to acquire the remaining 35% stake in the project in June 2020.
Oklo said that the acquisition of the Sari Project forms the central part of its broader strategy to acquire a significant landholding within the Birimian gold belt in western Mali.
The company currently holds approximately 500km2 of highly prospective ground in this emerging world-class gold region.
The Sari project details
Located less than 1km east of the Oklo’s Dandoko Project in western Mali, the Sari project covers an area of 14km2 and combined with Kossaya and Kouroufing, it forms around 175km2 contiguous land holding.
The Sari project is located within the Kenieba Inlier to the east of the regionally significant Senegal Mali Shear Zone (SMSZ).
Oklo Resources managing director Simon Taylor said: “Oklo’s strategy of building a significant foothold in this prolific region has delivered exceptionally well.
“We have already confirmed two bedrock gold discoveries at Kouroufing and first pass geochemical auger drilling at the adjoining Sari and Kossaya projects shows anomalous gold within these permits as well. We look forward to continued exploration across this recently acquired land package.”
The SMSZ and associated northeast-trending outspread structures are spatially related to several major gold projects including Fekola (7.1Moz), Loulo (12.5Moz), Gounkoto (5.4Moz), Yatela (3Moz), Sadiola (15Moz) and Sabodala (10Moz).
In May, the company announced the results from first pass shallow geochemical auger drilling for the project. With the geochemical auger drilling, Oklo met its commitment to fund a minimum of €117,000 in exploration expenditure at Sari during the first year.
Oklo, in a statement, said: “The Company has now exercised its right to acquire 65% of the Permit through the payment of €15,245. Oklo has the right to increase its interest in the Permit to 100% via a further payment of 10,000,000 FCFA (approx. €15,000),or the equivalent in Oklo shares (at the vendor’s option) in June 2020.”
