Oriole does not control the property but says it will get a 51% stake after spending US$1.5 million on drilling.

That did not worry investors, who sent the share price up 27% following the news to 44p (US53.5c).

The rock sampling programme saw 454 samples taken along a 4km strike length identified by previous explorer Reservoir Minerals.

From the assays, four samples came back at greater than 100g/t gold, with the highest at 135.4g/t, and 16 were over 10g/t.

The former Stratex International will add 2,000m to its 5,500m trenching programme following the results.

Oriole CEO Tim Livesey said the rock chip survey paved the way for more work to be done.

"The results delivered along the 4km strike only serve to strengthen the rationale for Oriole's investment in this highly prospective region, and we are excited at the prospect of further results from the planned increased in the current trenching programme," he said.

"The trenching programme is designed to tighten up our targeting for a drill programme in 2019, and the recent results support this work."

Oriole also saw some good numbers recently at the Dalafin project in Senegal, for which IAMGOLD has an earn-in agreement.