The Kangaré area has been explored by JICA during the period 1992-94 and as part of a much larger mining tenement by Anmercosa Exploration (Mali) Ltd (Anmercosa) from March 1995 to July 1997. This larger area included the current Kangaré concession area, plus the area to the north, currently covered by the Mandiela licence. The JICA program consisted of soil geochemistry for gold,arsenic, copper, lead, zinc an antimony on an eastwest grid 1000 x 200 metres with some infill sampling at 500 x 100 metres over the most anomalous zones.
The subsequent Anmercosa program included airborne geophysics (which are now embedded into the Sysmin airborne coverage), Landsat interpretation, regolith mapping, soil and termite mound geochemistry, ground geophysics (HLEM and magnetics) and drilling (36 RC holes, totalling 2145 metres and 19 diamond drill holes, totalling 2122 metres). The Anmercosa program targeted the northsouth structures, focusing on the main geochemical anomalies highlighted by the JICA program. This was the Silobougou grid, which covers most of the current Kangaré concession area.
There has been no commercial production of gold from the area. However, disused artisanal workings occur within the property. An area of artisanal workings in the northern part of the licence area was observed. The pits were round, approximately 1 metre in diameter and up to around 10 metres deep. Some have intercepted the water table. There are also several washing sites, around which there are mounds of quartz gravel. The workings appear recent and are likely to have been worked in the past year or two.
The Kangaré licence area is located within the Bougouni region of the West African craton, where generally north-south trending belts of Birimian metavolcano-sedimentary and metasedimentary rocks and orogenic granitoids of Early Proterozoic age crop out. The trend of the major structures is northsouth and northeast-southwest, which are related to transcurrent D2 and D3 deformations. The licence area covers a northsouth belt of Birimian formations that include, from west to east: pretectonic intrusive, volcano-sedimentary unit (predominantly basic) and meta-greywacke. There is a prominent ridge of volcanics that runs east-west to the east of the village of Lena, in the centre of the licence area. The NS-trending belt is part of the major Yanfolila Structure that extends further South into Guinea. Outcrop is extremely sparse, with the area being covered by thick laterite profile. Vein quartz was observed as float and in the excavated material around the artisanal workings near Lena, along with some metapelite material.
Past drilling activities by Anmercosa comprised a total of 36 RC holes (2145 metres in total) and 19 diamond drill holes (2122 metres in total). The Anmercosa program targeted the NS structures and focusing on the main geochemical anomalies identified by the JICA program. This was the Silobougou grid, which covers most of the current Kangaré concession area. Anmercosa followed the soil sampling on the Silobougou grid (the current Kangaré concession) with diamond drilling in the southwestern portion of the area. Nineteen holes were drilled to depths of between 100 and 150 metres, with an azimuth of 270° and a declination of 45°. The inclined holes intersected around 30 metres of saprolite and 20-40 metres of saprock before encountering fresh bedrock, which composed biotite-rich granitic mylonite and ultramylonite. Assays from this drilling were disappointing, returning values of less than 100 ppb gold, with occasional exceptions up to 500 ppb, mainly located within the saprolite. A total of 27 RC drill holes were drilled in the northeastern part of the Silobougou grid to depths of between 40 and 80 metres. Most of the holes intersected saprolite and just over half reached saprock. Drill holes KA023, 024 and 026 in the southern part of the drilled area had gold in soil averages of between 130 and 320 ppb. In addition, two lines of five closely spaced drill holes were located on the edge of a zone of orpillage, within an alluvial valley. These holes were inclined, with an azimuth of 245°. Gold grades in these holes were very low, with only a few intersections with gold grades greater than 100 ppb.
The Kangaré license area is bordered to the north by the Mandiela Research Permit (owned by SGI-Mali), to the east by the Dieba and the Kemogola Exploration Permits, held by Randgold and to the south by the Babougou Research Permit, which is held by Moro Sarl.
The Kangaré licence area is located within a northsouth trending alternation of Birimian sediments and granitoid rocks. The soils surveys indicate elevated gold soil anomalies in a roughly north-northeast-south-southwest trending belt in the western part of the licence area, apparently corresponding to the faulted contact between the Birimian sediments and granitoid rocks. The mineralisation at Kangaré is likely to be of typical mesothermal quartz vein gold type, which is corroborated by the disused artisanal workings that appear to have specifically exploited the quartz veins. The drilling results undertaken by Anmercosa in the same area did not reveal any significant gold mineralisation. The poor results led to the decision by Anmercosa to drop the licence in July 1997. However, consideration of the Landsat and the airborne geophysics interpretation suggests that the structural character of the northsouth belt may not have been fully taken into account during the drilling programs: the azimuth of all the diamond holes was N270° (N245° for the 10 RC inclined holes). Given that the bedrock in all the diamond drill holes was granitic material (mostly mylonite), the drill holes may have missed the structural contact between the granitoids and the Birimian sediments, and thus possibly also the main zone of mineralisation. The soil anomalies, particularly in the western part of the property, together with historical artisanal activity merit further investigation in the area. The licence area is favourably situated in terms of infrastructure and manpower, with good access, the relatively large town of Kangaré within 1 km of the licence area, the hydroelectric plant at the Selingué dam within a few kilometres, the water source of the Sankarani Lake within the licence itself, plus a tarred road to Bamako.