Kiaka is 100%-owned by Kiaka SA, a company incorporated in Burkina Faso. Kiaka SA is 90%-owned by West African Resources Ltd., with the government of Burkina Faso owning the remaining 10%.
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Summary:
The Kiaka deposit is located in southern Burkina Faso, at the intersection of the Tenkodogo Greenstone Belt and the Markoye Fault Zone, within Lower Proterozoic rocks of the Birimian Orogeny. The deposit is covered by up to 20 m of saprolite, with most gold mineralization occurring in fresh rock. Gold is hosted in tightly folded, sheared mafic volcanics and volcaniclastic sediments, with a northeast-trending stratigraphy that dips sub-vertically to steeply northwest.
Gold mineralization occurs within the Kiaka Shear Zone (KSZ), a sub-vertical to steeply southwest-dipping shear zone comprising an anastomosing network of brittle-ductile shears along the axial surface of the Kiaka antiform. This mineralized zone varies in width from 100 m to over 400 m, extending approximately 2.3 km along strike.
Gold mineralization exhibits both disseminated and vein-related characteristics and is associated with fine-grained disseminated pyrrhotite, with lesser amounts of pyrite, chalcopyrite, and arsenopyrite. Higher gold grades are often linked to quartz, either as quartz veins or as silicification of adjacent wall rocks.
The geological setting includes a lower sequence of amphibole-rich mafic volcanics, overlain by clastic sediments. Several quartz-feldspar porphyritic sills intrude the sequence at the northern end, with the most significant being 90 m thick, acting as a rheological barrier to mineralization. The area also contains post-mineralization mafic intrusions, including steeply dipping diorite dykes (up to 80 m wide) and fine-grained dolerite dykes (2–3 m wide) with sharp contacts. Structural deformation is the result of northwest-southeast shortening, forming a major F2 antiform, which is a key control on mineralization, as indicated by steep northeast-plunging gold zones.
Deposit Dimensions
At Kiaka Main, mineralization extends for approximately 2 km along strike, forming multiple broad lenses, some exceeding 200 m in width. Drilling has confirmed mineralization down to 600 m depth, while at Kiaka South, mineralization extends 500 m along strike and reaches a depth of 200 m. Both deposits remain open at depth.