Riverstone hopes for big resource boost at Karma

After recent drilling doubled the length of Riverstone Resources‘ (RVS-V, RVREF-O) Kao gold deposit to 600 metres, the Burkina Faso-focused company is gearing up to find out just how large the gold deposit can get.

That’s not the only thing. As Riverstone starts a 5,000-metre drill program at the end of January on its Karma project, which includes the Kao, Rambo and Goulagou targets, the company will be anxiously awaiting the summer rainy season when an updated resource estimate will be calculated.

“Our goal at the end of the year is to have a resource in excess of 1 million oz. gold,” says Michael McInnis, Riverstone’s president and CEO.

The company isn’t starting from scratch with the near-surface oxide deposit. Riverstone has been working in Burkina Faso for about four years now, and is confident its goal is doable based on the drilling done so far. That includes 3,000 metres on Rambo and more than 5,000 metres on Kao.

The latest assay results from the Kao deposit, released in early January, included a 28-metre intersection grading 1.42 grams gold per tonne in hole 092, including 10 metres grading 2.78 grams gold.

An 18-metre intersection in hole 094 returned 1.15 grams gold per tonne and an intercept of 10 metres grading 1.62 grams gold.

Plus, the company has more than half a million oz. gold to start with. When Riverstone optioned the Goulagou property from Golden Star Resources (GSC-T, GSS-X) last October, the deposit already had an indicated resource of 280,000 oz. gold with an average grade of 1.79 grams gold per tonne, and an inferred resource of 270,000 oz. gold grading 1.49 grams gold per tonne.

McInnis says he hopes to see Goulagou at 650,000 oz., gold, Kao at 400,000 oz. and Rambo at 200,000 oz. with the next results.

“We’ve done our in-house calculations and we think it’s doable,” McInnis says.

Rambo, Kao and Goulagou are all about 6 km to 7 km apart and easily accessible by road from the capital of Ougadougou.

“It’s quite flat in the area,” McInnis says. “So even if there isn’t a road you can just drive across the terrain.”

The first round of drilling this year will be 3,000 metres at Kao, which is still open. McInnis hopes the boundaries of the deposit will be defined at the end of drilling. Then, in March, McInnis plans to drill another 2,000 metres at Goulagou.

“By then we’ll have the Kao results and if we need to bring the rig back, we will,” McInnis says.

The company has committed itself to drill the first 5,000 metres but has an option to do more drilling. It has about $1 million in the bank, which will cover the current program.

McInnis says he will see how the markets do over the next few months, wait for the results from this drill program and then do a financing in four to five months.

The Karma project isn’t Riverstone’s only project. The company has four other early-stage projects including Yaramoko, which is about 300 km west of Karma, and is just south of Semafo‘s (SMF-T, SEMFF-O) Mana gold project. Mana has proven and probable reserves of 9.2 million tonnes grading 3.06 grams gold per tonne for 903,000 oz. gold, while measured and indicated resources total nearly 302,000 oz. gold and inferred resources stand at 444,000 oz. gold.

On Jan. 16 the company released some high grade assays from the first drill program on the property.

Of those, hole 22 returned a 14-metre intersection grading 2.04 grams gold per tonne while hole 15 returned 6 metres grading 11.88 grams gold per tonne.

McInnis called it a “real estate claim.”

“We said let’s get a property near Mana and see what we can do.”

Riverstone didn’t do anything for a year, but after doing some mapping and rock sampling with grades of 1 gram gold per tonne to 12 grams, the company could trace a quartz vein system for 7 km.

McInnis says the 22 holes drilled in the fall reflected the values on surface as well as the widths and grades at the Mana deposit.

He says he would like to take the drill over Yaramoko after finishing up the drill program at Karma.

“We’re trying to find another drill but it’s hard to find one,” McInnis says.