VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 9, 2024 /CNW/ - DFR Gold Inc. (TSXV: DFR) ("DFR" or the "Company") confirms that it has exercised its option to acquire the Wuo Land 2 exploration license ("Wuo Land 2") that comprises part of its Cascades Project ("Cascades" or the "Project") in Burkina Faso for a payment of US$300,000.
As announced on 11 March 2022, the Company entered into an option agreement to acquire the 243km2 Wuo Land 2 exploration license to gain full control of the 30km strike length of identified mineralization at Cascades. Wuo Land 2 hosts significant recent discoveries, such as Far East, Sina Yar and TT13-West as well as additional targets that DFR intends to explore in the near future, showing the consistent mineralisation across the Project area. DFR owns 80% of Cascades, subject to spending US$18,000,000 on the Project, with Panthera Resources Plc holding the remaining interest.
The US$300,000 payment has been funded via a loan from Spirit Resources SARL (the "Spirit Loan"), a privately held investment company controlled by Jean-Raymond Boulle, which holds 39.1% of DFR's outstanding shares. The Spirit Loan carries an eight percent (8%) annual interest rate and is repayable in full on January 31, 2025 (the "Final Repayment Date"). DFR shall prepay the Spirit Loan upon receipt of the proceeds of any debt, equity or other financing in excess of US$2,000,000 that occurs prior to the Final Repayment Date.
This Spirit Loan constitutes a related party transaction (the "Transaction") as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 – Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Transaction is exempt from the formal valuation requirements of Section 5.4 of MI 61-101 pursuant to Subsection 5.5(b) of MI 61-101 as no securities of the Company are listed on certain exchanges specified by MI 61-101, and exempt from the minority shareholder approval requirements of Section 5.6 of MI 61-101 pursuant to Subsection 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61- 101 as, at the time the Transaction was agreed to, neither the fair market value of the subject matter of the Transaction nor the consideration therefor exceeded 25% of the Company's market capitalization.
CEO John McGloin said: "Exercising this option demonstrates our commitment to progressing the Cascades project, which we believe shows incredible potential. Our recent work has resulted in three new discoveries all within the Wuo Land 2 license area where we believe we are just scratching the surface of the 30km long mineralised corridor."
About the Wuo Land 2 License
Wuo Land 2 is contiguous with and almost completely surrounds the Wuo Land License where the company declared a Maiden Mineral Resource in October 2021. Remote Sensing and drilling results to date point to a potentially much larger mineralised system across the combined Wuo Land and Wuo Land 2 licenses than was originally recognised on the Cascades Project.
Following the option agreement to acquire Wuo Land 2 in March 2022, the Company embarked upon a programme of systematic target delineations on multiple parallel shear structures defined from remote sensing data.
An initial 5,000 metre drilling programme at Cascades in 2022 intersected significant mineralisation at the new TT13 target some 6km east of the Daramandougou and Wuo Ne resources areas. A follow-on 5,000 metre programme in 2023 outlined significant additional resource potential at newly defined Sina Yar and Far East targets where significant recent artisanal mining activity has occurred.
At Sina Yar, 1.7km north of TT13, DFR's 2023 first-pass reverse circulation drilling programme has discovered what appears to be a major new zone. Ten drill holes totalling 903m have been completed at the target and significant mineralisation was intersected in each hole drilled. In particular, three consecutive holes testing 250m of strike length of the main north-south trending structure intersected significant widths of mineralisation, including 34m (from 50m downhole depth) at a grade of 1.83g/t plus 6m (from 23m) at a grade of 1.14 g/t in hole CS23-RC077.
At Far East, some 2.5km east of Daramandougou, a wide mineralised zone was intersected, including 48 metres at 0.42g/t Au. Resource delineation step-out and down-dip drilling are part of the next planned drill programme at Sina Yar, Far East.
Notes to Editors:
DFR Gold Inc. is a TSX Venture Exchange listed exploration, and mine development company focused on gold in West Africa. DFR holds interests in a portfolio of West African gold exploration projects including the highly prospective Cascades gold project ("Cascades") in Burkina Faso. Cascades has a Mineral Resource* prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 comprising 5.41 million tonnes of indicated resources at an average grade of 1.52g/t Au for a total 264,000 ounces of gold: and 6.93 million tonnes of inferred resources at an average grade 1.67g/t Au for a total of 371,000 ounces of gold. Please see the Company's technical report titled "Amended and Re-stated Technical Report on the Labola Project Burkina Faso" dated April 2, 2022, with an effective date of April 20, 2022, for further information regarding Cascades. This report can be located at www.dfrgold.com.
In Madagascar, DFR has an advanced high grade hard rock zircon exploration prospect located in the west of the country, approximately 220km east of the port of Maintirano and close to a state road. DFR acquired Beravina from Pala Investments and Austral Resources in 2016.
The Company's public documents may be accessed at www.sedarplus.ca
Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Additional Mineral Resource Estimate Disclosures
*Mineral Resources, which are not Mineral Reserves, do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, marketing, or other relevant issues. The Mineral Resources in this note were reported using CIM (2014) Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves, Definitions and Guidelines and adopted by CIM Council.
The quantity and grade of reported Inferred resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define this Inferred Resource as an Indicated or Measured Mineral Resource. It is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading the Inferred Resource to an Indicated or Measured Mineral Resource category.
The Mineral Resource has been constrained by an open pit evaluation using a gold price of US$1900 per ounce, and then reported at a cut-off of 0.5 g/t Au.
Contained metal and tonnes figures in totals may differ due to rounding.
Forward-Looking Statements:
This release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements other than statements of historical fact in this release that address activities, events or developments that DFR expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements or information. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "aim", "aspire", "strive", "will", "expect", "intend", "plan", "believe" or similar expressions as they relate to DFR. Forward- looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to materially differ from those reflected in the forward-looking information.
There are a number of important factors that could cause DFR's actual results to differ materially from those indicated or implied by forward-looking statements and information. Such factors include, among others: the ability to obtain requisite regulatory approvals; the ability to finance the drilling campaign; commodity prices; the gold exploration and mining industry in general; the potential impact of the announcement on relationships; including with regulatory bodies, employees; suppliers, customers and competitors; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; changes in applicable laws; and compliance with extensive government regulation. Should one or more of these risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information or statement prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected.
DFR cautions that the foregoing list of material factors is not exhaustive. When relying on DFR's forward-looking statements and information to make decisions, shareholders should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. DFR has assumed that the material factors referred to in the previous paragraph will not cause such forward looking statements and information to differ materially from actual results or events. However, the list of these factors is not exhaustive and is subject to change and there can be no assurance that such assumptions will reflect the actual outcome of such items or factors. The forward-looking information contained in this release represents the expectations of DFR as of the date of this release and, accordingly, is subject to change after such date. Readers should not place undue importance on forward looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. While DFR may elect to, it does not undertake to update this information at any particular time except as required in accordance with applicable laws.
SOURCE DFR Gold Inc. (formerly Diamond Fields Resources Inc.)