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AFRICAN GOLD LTD (A1G) - West African Mining Potential Unleashed at Didievi Gold Project
Gold exploration in West Africa is heating up, and African Gold Limited is at the forefront with their flagship Didievi project in Côte d'Ivoire. CEO Adam Oehlman joins us to unveil a story of remarkable resource growth, strategic partnerships, and multiple pathways to development.
The numbers speak for themselves: a high-grade resource approaching 1 million ounces at an impressive 2.5 grams per tonne from surface. But what's truly exciting is that this is just the beginning. The deposit remains open in all directions – along strike, at depth, and to the east – with Adam emphasizing their commitment to maintaining the high-grade, open-pit nature of the project while aggressively expanding the resource footprint.
A game-changing $12 million strategic partnership with Montage Gold has transformed operations, bringing big-company technical expertise and in-country support to accelerate development. With Montage now operating the project under a joint technical committee, African Gold has the perfect blend of major company capabilities and junior explorer agility. The strategic location of Didievi, sitting within 60 kilometres of three major gold mills, creates compelling development options including potential satellite mining arrangements.
Beyond the main Blaffo Guetto resource, promising discoveries at Poku and Pranoi demonstrate the broader potential of the land package, with eight additional drill-ready targets waiting to be tested. With plans to scale up from one to four drill rigs before year-end, the company is positioned for a steady stream of results and potential catalysts.
Ready to follow African Gold's journey from exploration to development? Subscribe to ASX Briefs for ongoing updates as this dynamic company unlocks the multi-million ounce potential of their West African gold assets.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Welcome again to ASX Briefs, where we spotlight emerging explorers and the people driving high-impact resource discoveries across ASX-listed companies. And today we're joined by Adam Oehlman, the CEO of African Gold Limited, a West African gold explorer focused on unlocking a multi-million ounce potential of the Didievi gold project in Cote d'Ivoire. Adam, thanks for joining me today and welcome to the ASX Briefs podcast.
Adam Oehlman Guest
Thanks, Andrew, great to be here.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Now, Adam, for investors that may be unfamiliar with African Gold, do you want to just provide a brief overview of the company?
Adam Oehlman Guest
Yeah, Andrew, we're a Cote d'Ivoire focused gold explorer, predominantly developing the Didievi gold project located just outside of the capital in Yamoussoukro. We've got a close to a million-ounce resource at 2.5 grams from service, so really high grade, and we've got a development project, Konahiri, coming up behind. And we've also recently brought on Montage Gold, a TSX-listed 1.5 billion-plus gold development company in-country and also a pretty powerful strategic investor alongside those guys.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay Now Adam, African Gold has just reported a resource of nearly 1 million ounces at Blaffo Guetto. So, what are the key takeaways from your most recent drilling and how close are you to crossing that 1 million-ounce milestone?
Adam Oehlman Guest
Yeah, I guess the key takeaway is this is really just the beginning.
You know we're open a long strike. We're open at depth, we're open to the east, with plenty more growth to come. We really just want to demonstrate to the market that we have that we actually do have a million ounces at a lower cutoff grade. We used quite a high cutoff grade 0.8. If you go to 0.5, you're sort of at that 1.1-million-ounce mark. But given some of the strategic upside that we believe we have, and I'll explain later having a bit higher head grade could be beneficial for us.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, and you've outlined that the deposit remains open in all directions. So, can you walk us through what the next phase of resource growth looks like and how far the system could extend?
Adam Oehlman Guest
Yeah, so we want to keep the open pit nature of the project. So, we're looking at sort of 250 metres vertical extension now. Current gold prices and sort of the way the deposit is, we could extend that by 100 metres plus. So, we really want to keep that high-grade open pit potential continues at a long strike. We're at sort of two kilometres a strike now. We've got a bit more to go to the north and the south as well, and I guess where a lot of upside sits as well is that the Blaffo Guetto is just the most developed prospect on the tenure. We also made two regional discoveries, the Poku Trend, that are just three kilometres to the east and also Pranoi, 11 kilometres to the north, and these could add quite a lot of ounces to the overall project and they'll be tested in sort of quick succession.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, and then in June, the company completed a $12 million strategic partnership with Montage Gold, as you mentioned, including a crossholding of shares. So, what does this alliance mean for the company's future funding and development options?
Adam Oehlman Guest
Yeah, it's really great to bring in a strong operator in country. So, Montage have actually taken over operatorship of the project. We formed a joint technical committee. We decide on the work together, decide on the budget and then they execute with their people. So, it's quite a powerful combination that we get access to you know big company technical expertise. We get the get the benefit of you know scale that they do for there you know assays and other items, while also um having that in-country support, from a multiple level. It adds quite a lot of value for us and its good optionality. They're clearly project developers. They're currently building 11-million-ton project to the north. There's no strategic benefit with us. They really see us as potentially the next one that they build. But they also are supportive of some of the other commercial outcomes that are possible in the region.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, and with this cash on hand and strategic alignment gold developer, does that shift the way you approach asset development or even exit strategies in West Africa?
Adam Oehlman Guest
I think we've always been quite aligned. It just gives us an opportunity to be a bit more aggressive. You know, I'm not one to sort of sit around and drill little bits and pieces. I want to go at speed, really define, figure out what we have and then progress forward. So, I think the cash balance just helps us accelerate our exploration across the tenure and that's something that we're focused on. And, yeah, we're moving on a number of fronts at speed.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, and just touching on the locations, Didievi sits within 60 kilometres of three major gold mills, including Perseus Mining's plant. So, what infrastructure advantages does this give you as you move towards a development decision?
Adam Oehlman Guest
Yeah, that's correct. So, this, as I mentioned before, having a high head grade of your resource would definitely help in a sort of satellite trucking or tolling scenario. We think that's a potential outcome for our grade. We know all three of those mines could benefit from having a high-grade feed to supplement them. It's not something that we're sitting around sort of waiting to happen. Things are sort of moving on a few fronts, but we really fortunately for me, all I need to worry about is growing the resource as big as possible while also progressing the approvals, the EIS application and all the parts that will go into the progression of the tenement to mining licence.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay now, beyond Bloffo Guetto, you've got a suite of other highly promising regional prospects. As you mentioned Poku and Pranoi. So, which of these do you believe could host your next discovery, and why?
Adam Oehlman Guest
Yeah, I guess probably worth adding that these are the two that we were able to test in the last program. There are eight other drill-ready targets, one of them called Blaffo Guetto North. That's just sort of 300 metres to the northeast of the sort of known Blaffo mineralisation and super exciting prospect there. I probably wouldn't want to narrow us down at this stage because I think we're really just only now being able to drill outside of that main resource zone and I think that as we continue to explore these targets, we'll continue to see exploration success outside of that package.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, and just to wrap things up, you've had a fast-paced 12 months, and the July drilling is already underway. So, what are some of the major catalysts’ investors can look out for the remainder of 25 and early 26?
Adam Oehlman Guest
Results. That's always the key to success. We'll be, we're drilling at speed. We've got uh one rig at site now. We'll be scaling up to four rigs before the end of the year, um, and this will sort of create a consistent stream of results. And one thing that probably doesn't get acknowledged enough is the Konahiri exploration that we're doing so three and a half hours to the northwest another greenstone belt 18-kilometer-long soil anomaly super fertile greenstone belt. We're just doing the infill soil program now. That'll be followed up by two and a half thousand-meter auger, and then we'll get in our sort of 5000-meter RC program October this year. So very high potential for discovery there. And I think that that one's probably going to surprise a few people, just given how much we focus on Didievi. Still is 100% of the focus, just about. But it's always nice to have a sort of low cost second tenement to come up behind.
Andrew Musgrave Host
Okay, Adam. Well, it's been great to chat today and get an update on the company. So, thanks for your time and we look forward to further updates from African Gold in the upcoming months.
Adam Oehlman Guest
Pleasure, Andrew. I appreciate you having me on.
Andrew Musgrave Host
That concludes this episode of ASX Briefs. Don't forget to subscribe and we look forward to catching you on our next episode.