The Wahgnion Mining License is 90% owned by Wahgnion Gold Operations SA (“WGO”).
On June 30, 2023, Endeavour Mining plc closed the sale of its 90% interests in its Wahgnion non-core mine in Burkina Faso to Lilium Mining, a subsidiary of Lilium Capital.
Endeavour claimed in its 2023 financial results that Lilium failed to complete the payment for the sale of its 90% interests in the Burkina Faso Boungou and Wahgnion mines, leading to arbitration against Lilium and its subsidiaries.
27 August 2024 – Endeavour and Lilium are pleased to announce that they have signed a settlement agreement, involving the State of Burkina Faso, in respect of the divestment of the Boungou and Wahgnion mines. Pursuant to the Agreement, Lilium will transfer the ownership of the Boungou and Wahgnion mines to the State.
- subscription is required.
Summary:
The Wahgnion mine is located in the southwest corner of Burkina Faso within the Paleoproterozoic Birimian Senoufo Belt. The Senoufo Belt trends north-northeast and comprises mainly basaltic and andesitic volcanic rocks, lesser sedimentary rocks, and numerous gabbroic to granitic sub-volcanic plutons.
Mineralization at the Wahgnion Gold project is structurally controlled and is widely associated with hematite, iron carbonate, sericite, pyrite and locally, with albitic alteration. Higher gold grades are commonly associated with stylolitic laminated quartz veins or pyrite veinlets. Coarse- grained gold is found in fractures within pyrite veins or in quartz-carbonate vein selvages. Mineralization is predominantly of a lode-style gold type, associated with discrete structures. The mineralization is interpreted to have formed from the same mineralizing system, with variations in style reflecting the difference in local lithological and structural settings.
Nogbele Deposit
Basement exposure in the Nogbele area is generally poor, with outcrop information limited to occasional exposure in shallow creek beds, shallow mining pits, road cuts, and quartz vein outcrop. Surficial regolith varies from a shallow residual granitic profile to a competent laterite ferricrete ridge that traces the contact of the Nogbele pluton and the host rocks in the Nogbele North area.
The Nogbele area is underlain by a package of metamorphosed and variably deformed volcano- sedimentary units and three distinct suites of intrusive rocks. A foliation or lineation is well developed in the oldest of the granitoids and the sedimentary rocks but is absent from the two younger granitoids.
Extensive packages of variably deformed and metamorphosed volcano-sedimentary rocks are the oldest rocks in the Nogbele area and include: Massive fine-grained mafic volcanic flows, tuffs and volcanic siltstones with few remaining primary textures; finely bedded mafic volcanic siltstones, sandstones, and possible tuffs in which centimetre-scale bedding is still well preserved and a variety of plagioclase-porphyritic rocks of intermediate to siliceous composition, which are interlayered with the more mafic lithologies listed above.
A large pluton of massive, medium to coarse grained, equigranular, and relatively leucocratic biotite granite forms bedrock in the Nogbele Central area. A broad halo of pegmatite and aplite dykes surrounds the northwest side of the granite pluton, where the upper contact of the pluton dips the shallowest. The moderate to steeply dipping margins of the main granite pluton, as well as the dyke in the Nogbele Northwest area, are surrounded by narrower halos of pegmatite and aplite dykes. Dykes of biotite granite, pegmatite, and aplite cut across the foliation in the adjacent volcanosedimentary rocks, as well as the lineation in the deformed biotite granitoids.
An extensive pluton of massive, equigranular, medium-grained, hornblende-biotite-epidote bearing quartz diorite-tonalite forms bedrock in the Nangolo area.
Fourkoura Deposit
The Fourkoura deposit is located in the south-central Wahgnion Gold project area, six kilometres to the southeast of the Nogbele deposit. There is limited but useful outcrop at the Fourkoura deposit, however, good structural information is available from a series of shallow artisanal pits.
The Fourkoura deposit is located on a north-northeast trending shear zone within a quartz-gabbro unit that intrudes a volcano-sedimentary package. There are two distinct areas of mineralization observed at Fourkoura:
- Northern Zone: The northern zone of mineralization is essentially a lens shaped lode dipping approximately 40° to the west-northwest. The lens is moderately plunging to the northeast and remains open down plunge. Significant mineralization is formed on the sheared contact and within a narrow granitoid unit, with sheared volcanics on the footwall. Near the southern end of the northern lode, more diffuse mineralization is hosted within a quartz-gabbro body. There are two discrete hanging wall lodes present.
- Southern Zone: Mineralization hosted entirely within a quartz-gabbro unit is more northerly striking, with multiple lodes defining the deposit. Continuity on the structures is not as well defined and it is likely that mineralization is being controlled by crosscutting features that are poorly defined by current drilling. Mineralization is currently still open to the south.
Stinger Deposit
The Stinger deposit is hosted by dioritic, granitoid, and mafic metavolcanic rocks located within largely coincident swarms of diorite and granitoid dykes, both of which cut the older Birimian mafic volcanic country rocks. Diorite dykes and elongate plugs form the earlier swarm, whereas a more extensive and in-part coincident swarm of granitoid dykes form the later swarm. The intrusive margins of these dykes are the most widespread penetrative structure within the Stinger deposit, and one of three features that defined the structural grain of the rocks at Stinger prior to mineralization. Weak foliation and bedding within the Birimian mafic volcanic rocks also contribute to the structural grain of rocks at the Stinger deposit.
Intrusive contacts, foliation, and bedding in the southwest part of the deposit strike northeast and dip steeply, more commonly towards the northwest. Dykes in the central part of the deposit tend to strike north-northeast rather than northeast. A wider range of dips are also apparent, suggesting folding of the dykes about gently northeast or southwest plunging axes.
Samavogo Deposit
Samavogo is located in the northeast part of the Wahgnion Gold project area, approximately 18 km to the northeast of the Nogbele deposit. The Samavogo deposit is associated with a northeast trending shear zone that cuts volcanic rocks and occurs along the western contact of an early tonalite/quartz-diorite intrusion. It appears that the granitoid has been thrust into a hanging wall position and the current interpretation is that the contact is tectonic. A series of discrete structures are essentially parallel to the local amphibolite facies metamorphic fabric, and the mineralization is associated with movement on these faults.