Just weeks after completing a successful CAD 8.4 million financing round, the Suriname-active gold explorer Sranan Gold Corp. (CSE: SRAN; FSE: P84) has commenced its first diamond drilling at its 29,000 ha Tapanahony Project. The company plans up to 10,000 meters of drilling on the project. The first drill hole was sunk immediately west of Randy’s Pit open-pit mine, which is operated by the local population. (see drone footage Figure 1). Drilling is currently still underway. Due to encouraging visual findings, management has decided to extend the drill hole to a depth of more than 200 m. Initially, only a drilling depth of 150 meters was planned. This would make it the deepest drill hole ever conducted on the project. Predecessor Iamgold typically drilled only to depths of up to 120 m during its exploration in 2021, and drilled a total of approximately 4,000 m at that time.
Targeted Exploration on the Randy Trend
Sranan’s initial drilling focuses on the so-called Randy Trend, as most data is available from there. The exploration approach is based on Iamgold’s positive drilling results, small-scale mining by local community members, and recent geological and Lidar interpretations. In recent grab samples from fresh shafts in the Randy Pit, Sranan Gold identified gold values of up to 76.6 grams per tonne (g/t) and 23.7 g/t gold. In trench channel samples approximately 450 meters south of the northern tip of the Randy Pit, 36.7 g/t gold was measured over a length of 5 meters.
Figure 1: Current drone image looking north shows drill hole 25RADD-001 west of Randy “s Pit open-pit mine. Approximately 450 meters south of the pit, geologists measured a 5-meter section with 36.7 g/t gold in the 12-meter-long trench channel 25RACH-001. They suspect it could be the continuation of the mineralization of Randy” s Pit.
Dr. Dennis LaPoint, Executive VP of Exploration and Corporate Development, commented: “The drone footage is an excellent example of the Randy Trend’s potential. The shafts with grab samples of up to 6.5 g/t gold were overlooked by Iamgold and local mining companies, and the area of trench 25RACH-001 has not yet been explored. We look forward to conducting systematic diamond drilling to investigate the strike and depth of the Randy Trend.”
Sranan plans to validate the results of Iamgold’s historical drilling, as no drill cores have been preserved and structural and lithological data are missing from the drill logs. The company leverages its team’s experience with structural controls on mineralization, gained from other gold projects in the Guiana Shield, and uses oriented drill cores to better understand the shear and orientation of the veins. Drill samples are logged, photographed, and cut according to standard operating and QA/QC procedures. The first samples will be shipped once they are logged and sampled.
