(Sharecast News) - West and central Africa-focussed gold explorer Oriole Resources announced encouraging initial results from its Mbe gold project in the Adamawa region of Cameroon on Tuesday.

The AIM-traded company, which owns an 80% stake in the project, was currently advancing exploration with funding support of up to $4m from BCM International.

It said the Mbe project was part of its broader exploration portfolio, the Eastern CLP, comprising five contiguous licences covering a total of 2,266 square kilometres.

The initial trenching results at the MB01-N sub-prospect, a 0.95-kilometre-long target within the Mbe project, returned promising gold grades.

Among the standout results, trench MBT001 yielded 50 metres at 1.11 grams per tonne of gold, including a higher-grade section of 20 metres at 2.23 grams per tonne.

Trench MBT003 meanwhile reported 68 metres at 0.77 grams of gold per tonne, with significant sections including 12 metres at one gram per tonne and 24 metres at 1.18 grams per tonne.

Additionally, Trench MBT002 produced 38 metres at 0.55 grams of gold per tonne.

The intersections correlated well with previously-reported gold-in-soil anomalies, supporting the potential of the mineralised and sheared felsic porphyry unit with mafic xenoliths identified in the area.

Oriole said the initial results from the trenches were expected to play a crucial role in planning the maiden drilling programme, set to start in the 2024-2025 field season.

The firm said it anticipated further results from the remaining trenches in the coming weeks, which would provide additional insights into the gold potential at Mbe and inform the next steps in the exploration programme.

"These trenching results are highly encouraging, being over substantial widths and supporting our learned opinion that Mbe is a potentially significant gold discovery," said chief executive officer Martin Rosser.

"The remaining trench sampling results are eagerly anticipated so we can commence planning for the maiden drilling programme."

At 1451 BST, shares in Oriole Resources were down 0.17% at 0.29p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.