Having satisfied conditions for completion of the acquisition of 100% of the Kolondieba Gold Project in southeast Mali from B2Gold Corp, Marvel Gold Ltd (ASX:MVL) has entered into an earn-in and joint venture agreement with Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG, LSE:RSG).
Under the agreement, Resolute will make an up-front payment of US$250,000 (A$375,916) to Marvel and can earn a 51% interest by sole-funding exploration expenditure of US$750,000 at Kolondieba in the next 24 months.
Resolute can earn an extra 19%, if they sole-fund exploration expenditure of US$4 million in the following 36 months.
Monetising exploration
Marvel has been rationalising its Mali exploration interests, with a recent $1.9 million placement allowing it to move forward with these efforts.
“We are pleased to have commenced this joint venture with Resolute Mining, a highly credible and experienced partner that is well respected in Mali," Marvel managing director Chris van Wijk said.
"Successfully negotiating a joint venture with Resolute is a credit to the quality work carried out at Kolondieba and is testament to the prospectivity of the project and the results achieved to date. We look forward to Resolute further advancing Kolondieba.
“This transaction is consistent with Marvel’s strategy to monetise the exploration interests we hold in Mali, as we progress ongoing project generation work.”
The exploration opportunity at Kolondieba has been made evident through an auger drilling program, that followed up results of soil sampling. The program returned several significant intercepts, including:
- 2.35 g/t gold in auger hole 22KDBAG1337;
- 1.54 g/t gold in auger hole 22KDBAG1474;
- 1.68 g/t gold in hole 22KDBAG0646;
- 1.65 g/t gold in hole 22KDBAG1027; and
- 2.01 g/t gold in hole 22KDBAG1039.
Auger drilling and GAIP survey areas.
Three standout targets were identified, each of which yielded significant gold anomalism over 1 kilometre of strike length and several hundred metres across. It was these three targets that were the focus of a follow-up Gradient Array Induced Polarisation (GAIP) geophysical survey.