By: OrePulse

Awalé Resources Ltd. has secured its final two exploration permits for the Odienné gold-copper project in northern Côte d'Ivoire, clearing the way for drilling across the Canadian-listed miner's entire wholly owned land package.

The two permits, designated PR-1100 ("Tienko") and PR-1101 ("GB"), were approved by decrees adopted by the Council of Ministers on October 14, 2026, and still require the Ivorian president's signature before they take effect, the company said. Once signed, they will complete a set of five permits Awalé holds in full, covering roughly 1,542 square kilometers across the Odienné district in the country's northwest.

"Securing the final two permits is an important milestone for Awalé," said Andrew Chubb, the company's president and chief executive. Chubb said the Odienné district remains significantly underexplored, pointing to the newly secured ground as fresh territory for the company's search for gold and copper.

The Tienko and GB permits extend Awalé's footprint to the north and west along regional geological structures that continue across the border into Mali and Guinea, the company said.

Fieldwork on the new ground is expected to begin within weeks of the decrees being signed, as part of a 15-month, 12 million Canadian dollar exploration program the company announced on September 22, 2026. That program calls for roughly 71,500 meters of drilling and more than 15,000 surface geochemical samples across Awalé's wholly owned permits. It is funded by a recent round of financing from PDI Gold, and the broader Odienné project is backed by Awalé's joint-venture partners, Fortuna Mining and Newmont.

Planned work on the Tienko and GB permits includes aerial magnetic surveys, regional soil and termite-mound geochemical sampling, staged infill and auger drilling, and initial aircore, reverse-circulation and diamond drilling, the company said. A separate drilling allowance of 15,000 meters — split between 10,000 meters of diamond drilling and 5,000 meters of reverse-circulation drilling — has been set aside for follow-up work on any new discoveries across the wider land package.

The wholly owned permits sit alongside, but remain distinct from, Awalé's joint-venture ground at Odienné, where Newmont and Fortuna Mining hold interests. Together, the five licenses make up the full extent of ground Awalé controls outright in the district, independent of those joint-venture arrangements.

Awalé closed its announcement by thanking the government of Côte d'Ivoire for its role in advancing the permitting process. The completed package leaves the company positioned to pursue its drilling campaign across the wholly owned ground without further permitting delays.

The company said the newly completed permit package, combined with the 71,500-meter drill program already under way, positions it to test multiple targets across its wholly owned land in parallel with the work being carried out on its joint-venture ground with Newmont and Fortuna Mining elsewhere in the district.