Canadian mineral exploration company Sankamap Metals Inc. is expanding its exploration programme at its 24,100-hectare Fauro property in Solomon Islands, with recent sampling identifying a new gold target in an area with no known historical sampling.
The company said on 29 September that its systematic prospecting programme had collected 829 samples across Fauro, with assay results for 798 samples still pending.
Recent silt sampling returned up to 6.78 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold from a previously unsampled area, while earlier surface sampling produced values of up to 116 g/t gold and 4% copper.
The results have prompted Sankamap to expand geological and geochemical work across the property as it seeks to refine existing exploration targets and identify new areas for further investigation.
Sankamap chief executive John Florek said the latest results provided further evidence of a gold-bearing system across the broader project area.
"During recent reconnaissance and prospecting activities, the exploration team encountered several drainages where local artisanal miners were actively panning for gold," Florek said.
"A representative grab sample of silt collected from one of these drainages returned 6.78 g/t Au, providing further evidence of an active gold-bearing system within the broader project area."
Fauro is located within a copper-gold metallogenic belt in the Solomon Islands that hosts major deposits including Lihir and Panguna. Sankamap said historical drilling, surface sampling and geophysical surveys have identified multiple prospective near-surface epithermal gold systems at Fauro.
At the Meriguna target, previous trenching returned 8 metres at 27.95 g/t gold and 14 metres at 8.94 g/t gold, while historical grab samples returned values of up to 173 g/t gold.
At Kiovakase, recent Sankamap sampling returned copper values of up to 4.09%, while limited historical shallow drilling at Fauro intersected 35 metres at 2.08 g/t gold.
The company plans to conduct an induced polarisation geophysical survey over high-priority targets to refine potential drill targets.
Sankamap is also planning an initial 2,000- to 3,000-metre drilling programme following the geophysical work.
The 2026-27 exploration programme is focused on geological mapping and geochemical sampling, with the company expanding its work into areas with limited or no historical exploration data.
Sankamap said the expanded dataset would be used to prioritise targets ahead of the planned geophysical surveys and drilling.
The Fauro property forms part of Sankamap's Oceania Project, which also includes the Kuma property in Solomon Islands. The company is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the ticker SCU.
