Kada, which is just 35km south of AngloGold Ashanti's 10 million ounce plus Siguiri Mine Complex, and has geological similarities, sitting along the same regional trend, has an initial resource of 25.5 million tonnes at 1.1 grams per tonne for 930,000oz. 

 

It is based on a 0.33gpt cut-off for the oxide zone and US$1764/oz gold price, within a $1900/oz optimised pit shell.

 

Encouragingly, 670,000oz of the maiden resource is within the shallow oxide and transitional zones above 100m.

 

Golden Rim said Kada appears to be suitable for free-digging, low-stripping, open-pit mining, with the mineralisation in broad mineable zones, extending from surface.

 

While it hasn't completed much in the way of metallurgical work so far, tests completed by former owner Newmont Corporation suggested good recoveries from simple cyanide leach processing.

 

With just a short period of ownership under its belt, confirming Newmont's historical drilling and getting a taste for the regional potential, Golden Rim sees upside, particularly at depth where and along strike, where it recently reported 66m at 1gpt from 48m at the Massan prospect, just 400m north of Kada.

 

Encouragingly, the resource covers just 7% of the 15km-long Kada corridor.

 

For comparison, AngloGold's Siguiri mine pits span over 11km and are up to 1km apart. It has operated for more than two decades, primarily mining the oxide layer.

 

Golden Rim's regional work has defined bedrock gold anomalies and stockwork vein mineralisation grading up to 171.5gpt gold.

 

Its immediate focus is on expanding the maiden resource with 10,000m of drilling planned in the near-term.

 

Managing director Craig Mackay said the maiden resource was just the start, and the company had five priority oxide targets beyond the 1km-long, 700m-wide area defined so far, and extensions to high-grade zones below the pit shell.

 

Golden Rim's preliminary metallurgical results are expected later this month.

 

A A$6 million fundraising was undertaken in September, priced at 9c each, after a 15:1 share consolidation.

 

Golden Rim is earning a 75% interest in Kada, under a deal struck in mid-2020, with Mackay describing Guinea as one of the most underexplored countries in West Africa.

 

Since that time Predictive Discovery has had great success rapidly defining the 3.65Moz resource at Bankan.

 

Newmont looked at Kada as a lower-grade, bulk tonnage, heap-leach operation, and walked away when the numbers didn't support a development last decade, but Golden Rim approached it as a typical Birimian stacked vein system similar to its 2Moz Kouri project in Burkina Faso. 

 

The drillbit appears to have supported Golden Rim's interpretation, but investors appear to have been expecting something bigger.

 

Golden Rim shares eased 5% to 10c on the news, valuing it at $26 million.

 

The stock has traded as high as 19.5c over the past year, and is now just 1.5c above its low point.

 

It had $2 million at the start of the quarter.