Predictive Discovery about to resume RC and DD drilling at Bankan Gold Project in Guinea

Predictive Discovery Ltd (ASX:PDI) expects to resume a 10,000-metre reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling (DD) program early next month to drive the resource drill-out and regional exploration at Bankan Gold Project in Guinea. This new phase of drilling was unexpectedly delayed by a month, mainly due to customs-related issues experienced by the contractor in moving their multi-purpose drill rig across the border from Mali and Guinea. The program is now scheduled to begin in the week starting December 7. “Emerging new major gold project” Predictive managing director Paul Roberts said: “We are highly enthusiastic about our NE Bankan and Bankan Creek discoveries and consider that with a gold system now defined from surface at NE Bankan over a strike length of 1.3 kilometres and significant untested potential in all directions at Bankan Creek, it has all the hallmarks of an emerging new major gold project in West Africa. “With a cash balance of over $14 million, we are exceptionally well funded as we head into our next phase of RC/DD drilling.” Planned exploration This program will start with a series of deeper holes at NE Bankan aimed at exploring at depth a thick, west-dipping, panel of gold mineralisation on the western side of the gold deposit where first phase drilling returned 55 metres at 2.9 g/t gold. The drill rig will then move on to explore extensions to the Bankan Creek gold mineralisation at depth where previous drilling intersected 91.6 metres at 1.9 g/t gold and along strike. It will also test near-surface, oxide gold mineralisation intersected on previously completed sections at NE Bankan in order to better define hole-to-hole continuity at shallow depths and also drill-test new gold mineralisation identified by the power auger drill program. Bankan Project NE Bankan Prospect with planned phase two diamond drill holes. Power auger program The Bankan-2 power auger program is well underway with 159 holes totalling 2,097 metres completed on an 80 x 80-metre grid, however, many of the holes were stopped short of their targeted 20-metre depth due to wet conditions at the end of the rainy season. These holes are exploring for new zones of gold mineralisation in the 3-kilometre-wide untested area between NE Bankan and Bankan Creek. Drilling between the two zones is designed to identify targets for follow-up RC and DD drilling. First assays from the power auger program have been received with best results of: 6 metres at 0.70 g/t gold (EOH in KKOAU844); and 16 metres at 0.44 g/t gold (EOH in KKOAU800) Maiden resource estimate The company will seek to accelerate drilling in early February with a second RC/DD rig in order to enable calculation of the planned maiden mineral resource estimate in mid-2021. Roberts said: “We are strongly focused on delivering a maiden resource in mid-2021. Concurrently, a program of metallurgical test-work is expected to start early in the March quarter of 2021.