Compass Gold Corp. announced that it is preparing to launch a follow-up drilling program to test previously identified mineralized sections at depth along the Tarabala Trend on its Sikasso Property in Southern Mali. Next Steps: A 2,000-m RC drilling program at the Tarabala prospect is planned to begin in early February, 2023.

Drilling will focus on determining the nature of the gold-bearing quartz veins (width, grade, orientation, and mineralogy) at depths of up to 200 m from surface. Based on previous drilling results from the prospect and initial results from the new RC drilling (e.g., presence of quartz veining), an additional 600 m of diamond drilling will take place in March 2023. Results of the RC drilling should be available in March.

This information will be used to plan a potential resource definitional drilling program in the second quarter of 2023, with the objective of defining a maiden resource. Results from Previous Drilling: Air Core (AC) drilling on the Tarabala Trend first identified bedrock gold at the Tarabala prospect in April 2020. Subsequent drilling identified shallow gold mineralization at Massala West, a distance of 4 km.

To date, a total of 106 AC holes (5,547 m), 5 RC holes (530 m), and five diamond hole (563.6 m) have been drilled at Tarabala over a distance of 1.5 km, and 102 AC holes (6,035 m) and 11 RC holes (1,056 m) at Massala West over 3 km. AC results at Tarabala included wide intervals up to 16 m @ 1.51 g/t Au (from 16 m; SAAC02) and 17 m @ 0.73 g/t Au (from 18 m; SAAC109). They also included higher grade sub-intervals such as 4 m @ 5.20 g/t Au (from 26 m; SAAC02) and 1 m @ 12.99 g/t Au (from 33 m; SAAC36).

Follow-up RC drilling at Tarabala in December 2020 and February 2021 indicated that the mineralization continued at depth, but it was not tested deeper than 60 m from surface. The widest intercepts from the RC drilling were 26 m @ 0.47 g/t Au (from 45 m; SARC001) and 25 m @ 0.58 g/t Au (from 67 m; SARC003). Diamond drilling results confirmed the presence of narrow quartz veins over broad intervals (e.g., 32 m @ 0.33 g/t Au, SADD003) and narrower, higher-grade zones such as 17 m @ 0.96 g/t Au (including 3 m @ 3.36 g/t, SADD004).

The best mineralization was identified in a 1-km section of the 2.2-km-long mineralized Tarabala Fault. Recent re-analysis of some of the diamond drill core using metallic screen fire assay showed that earlier analysis had underreported gold content in many samples due to the nugget effect. For example, exceptionally high gold grades were recorded in diamond drill hole SADD001 from 109 to 116 m: 7 m @ 14.13 g/t Au (metallic screen fire assays) versus 7m @0.424 g/t Au (original fire assay).

The new assaying was highly influenced by one sample that contained 97.34 g/t Au. To ensure the most reliable assay results, the new drilling at Tarabala will be analyzed using metallic screen fire assay. At Massala West, two kilometers further north, AC drilling identified two discrete mineralized zones greater than 550 m. The northernmost zone contained the widest mineralized interval and the highest grade.

Drill hole SAAC123 returned 24 m @ 2.35 g/t Au (from 18 m), which included 1 m @ 26.80 g/t Au (from 35 m). RC drilling in the two zones identified several mineralized intervals, including 6 m @ 1.02 g/t Au (from 43 m; SARC010). If deeper drilling at Tarabala continues to be as encouraging, additional drilling will be performed.