Australian mining company Skylark Minerals has acquired a 100% interest in the Vavoua gold project in central Côte d’Ivoire, taking full control of the exploration area after exercising its option to acquire the project from Ricca Resources.

Covering approximately 537 square kilometres, the project consists of two contiguous permits, Vavoua North and Vavoua South. It is located in a region considered favourable for gold mineralisation, around 20 kilometres north of the Abujar gold mine and within a broader geological corridor that includes other major gold systems in Côte d’Ivoire.

The Vavoua project has already produced several encouraging gold indications from previous exploration work. Around 8,000 metres of Air-Core drilling have been completed across part of the project area. Some drill results included 2 metres at 6.4 grams of gold per tonne from a depth of 27 metres and 2 metres at 3.6 grams per tonne from 28 metres. Previous surface sampling also identified areas containing anomalous gold values.

However, these results do not yet constitute the discovery of a new commercial gold deposit. No mineral resource or ore reserve has been established for the Vavoua project based on the available exploration results.

Skylark Minerals plans to continue evaluating the project's gold potential through additional geological mapping, surface sampling and target generation, followed by targeted drilling where warranted.

The acquisition gives Skylark full control over a large and relatively underexplored exploration area in one of West Africa's increasingly active gold regions. The company's next objective will be to determine whether the gold indications already identified at Vavoua can lead to the discovery of a larger mineralised system with potential economic significance.