Awalé Resources Limited reported drill results from the Empire target at its Odienné Project in Côte d'Ivoire. These results complete the Company's 12-hole drill program at Empire with 9 of these 12 holes to be incorporated into the initial Mineral Resource Estimate targeted for release in Second Quarter 2026. Step-down drilling at Empire confirms broad, multi-zone gold mineralization to 280m vertical depth.
5.1 g/t gold over 10m from 224m, including 24.9 g/t gold over 2m (EMDD-11). 1.3 g/t gold over 11m from 198m, including 7.8 g/t gold over 1m (EMDD-11). Near-surface resource drilling: 2.9 g/t gold over 10m from 116m (EMDD-07).
1.1 g/t gold over 19m from 23m (EMDD-03). Mineralization open along strike and at depth across Empire's 20 km corridor, with drilling to date covering only 5 km. All resource drilling results now reported; initial Mineral Resource Estimate targeted for Second Quarter 2026.
Drill hole EMDD-11 follows-up on the previously released deep hole OEDD-127, which returned 5.2 g/t Au over 15m from 215m downhole, including 7.5 g/t Au over 10m, extending the high-grade zone down-plunge to 150m vertical depth. Step-back hole EMDD-11 has not only intercepted down-plunge mineralization from previously reported hole OEDD-127, returning a high-grade result of 2m at 24.9 g/t Au within a broader mineralized vein and alteration zone of 10m at 5.1 g/t Au, but also intercepted hanging wall mineralization. This returned 11m at 1.3 g/t Au from 198m, including 1m at 7.8 g/t Au.
This mineralization is significant and is interpreted to represent a new zone and may be related to step south and southeast en echelon mineralization previously reported at Empire as 'Empire Gap'. Empire is Awalé's first discovery from the first drill program on the Odienné Project in 2019. It is a high-grade gold discovery that sits within a 20 km WNW trending structure corridor, and 2.5km south of the Charger discovery.
The Company has now demonstrated that the Odienné Project lies within a large plumbing system where multiple discoveries have been made. Taken together, these discoveries form the potential for a mining camp where multiple sites would feed a central processing facility, Empire is a high-grade discovery that is part of this vision. The Company continues to advance multiple drill programs across the Project, with results pending from: Four exploration holes at Charger 2, Seven diamond drill holes and aircore drilling at Fremen target on the 100%-owned Sienso permit, Ongoing diamond drilling at BBM and Charger NE, Regional aircore drilling across the Odienné East and Odienné West permits.
Analytical work for drill samples is being carried out at the independent Intertek Laboratories in Ghana and Australia, an ISO 17025 Certified Laboratory. Samples are prepared and stored at the Company's field camps and put into sealed bags until collected by Intertek from the Company's secure Odienné office and transported by Intertek to their preparation laboratory in Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire, for preparation. Samples are logged in the tracking system, weighed, dried, and pulverized to greater than 85%, passing a 75-micron screen.
Two pulps are prepared from each sample with one stream to Intertek Ghana for fire assay and a second to Australia where the sample is analyzed by 52 element ICP/MS with a 4-Acid digest. Blanks, duplicates, and certified reference material (standards) are being used to monitor laboratory performance during the analysis. Where visible gold is observed in drill core, a quartz wash is applied between every sample to reduce or eliminate any contamination.
Once fire assay results are received, samples over 5 g/t gold are routinely screen fire assayed, samples lower than 5 g/t gold continued within a high-grade interval are also screen fire assayed. Significant intervals reported in this news release are calculated as downhole length-weighted intercepts. For the Empire target, initial mineralized zones are calculated at a 0.2 g/t Au trigger and include up to 3 metres of internal waste for delineating mineralized zones.
Included intervals are calculated at 0.5 g/t Au, 1 g/t Au, and 5 g/t Au trigger values, with up to 3 metres of internal waste. Table 1 and 2 contains a list of all holes reported in this release. True widths are estimated to be 75% of the downhole widths.
Holes not reported do not make the 0.2 g/t Au grade trigger.
