Highlights

  • Aircore drilling confirms gold mineralisation over a semi-continuous 1.5km north-south strike length at Tiogo
  • Standout intercept of 4m at 19.48g/t gold from 42m depth — the highest-grade result in the program to date
  • Multiple holes ended in mineralisation, indicating a larger and deeper gold system yet to be fully tested

 

Desert Metals Limited (ASX:DM1) delivered one of the standout share price moves on the ASX on 12 May 2026, with its stock climbing 30% to AUD 0.013. While the absolute price point reflects the company's status as an early-stage explorer, the percentage gain is notable and signals that the market has responded positively to the company's latest exploration news from Côte d'Ivoire. For a micro-cap explorer, a single-session move of this magnitude is consistent with material discovery announcements, and the Tiogo follow-up results appear to have met that threshold.

 

Background: The Tiogo Gold Prospect

The Tiogo gold prospect is located on the Tengrela South permit in northern Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa — a region that has attracted growing interest from gold explorers and producers alike. Significantly, Tiogo sits just 30 kilometres from and along strike with Perseus Mining's (ASX: PRU) operating Sissingué gold mine, lending geological credibility to the prospect's potential. The first-pass aircore drilling program at Tiogo, completed in May 2025, delivered high-grade results that laid the foundation for the follow-up work announced today.

The follow-up program was designed to address two primary objectives: closing the large gaps — ranging from 400 to 900 metres — between the four widely spaced 2025 drill lines, and extending coverage both north and south of the known mineralised corridor. Desert Metals executed seven new east-west drill lines comprising 40 holes totalling 2,032 metres, systematically building out its understanding of the system.

 

Drilling Results: What the Data Shows

The headline intercept from the 2026 program is 4 metres at 19.48 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 42 metres depth in hole 26TSAC038, located on the northernmost of the seven new lines. This represents the strongest single result from the entire Tiogo program to date and was obtained from quartz vein-hosted mineralisation near the bottom of the hole — a detail that carries significant geological implications. The fact that the hole terminated within mineralisation suggests the grades encountered are not the ceiling of the system, but rather a window into something more substantial at depth.

Other notable results from the 2026 program include a wide interval of 12 metres at 3.81g/t gold from 34 metres depth in hole 26TSAC010, which also contains a higher-grade core of 2 metres at 21.84g/t gold. This intercept is located on an infill line between two of the original 2025 high-grade lines, confirming that grade continuity exists between those previously tested zones. Additionally, hole 26TSAC031 returned 4 metres at 2.83g/t gold from 44 metres — again in quartz vein-hosted mineralisation near total depth — establishing that high-grade material at the base of the weathering profile is not an isolated occurrence but recurs across multiple lines and a meaningful strike extent.

 

A System That Remains Open

Perhaps the most consequential aspect of the 2026 results is not what has been found but what has yet to be tested. Neither the 2025 nor the 2026 programs have penetrated fresh bedrock; the deepest holes have reached only the top of the saprolitic bedrock transition zone at around 50 to 60 metres. In gold systems developed along structural corridors in West African Birimian sequences, the primary, higher-grade mineralisation is typically hosted in fresh, unweathered rock well below the base of weathering. The presence of high-grade quartz vein-hosted intercepts in the lower saprolite — the boundary zone — is widely interpreted as a strong pointer to primary mineralisation at depth.

The gold system at Tiogo also remains open along strike in both directions. The northernmost 2026 line has returned the program's best result, suggesting grade may intensify toward the north and at depth. The soil anomaly that defines the Tiogo corridor extends further south as well, and this southern portion has yet to be drill-tested. Desert Metals has also recently completed a soil sampling program across previously untested areas within Tengrela South, with results expected by late May 2026.

 

Next Steps and Exploration Plans

Desert Metals has outlined a clear pathway for advancing Tiogo. The immediate next phase involves additional aircore infill and step-out drilling to close the remaining 200-metre and 400-metre gaps between lines, test the northern strike extension beyond the existing northernmost line, and continue southward along the soil anomaly corridor. The company has also announced plans for reverse circulation (RC) and/or diamond drilling to depths of 150 to 250 metres, targeting the bedrock expression of the gold system that has eluded all drilling to date.

The transition from aircore to RC or diamond drilling represents a natural maturation of the program. Aircore is a cost-effective tool for establishing the near-surface footprint of a system, but its shallow penetration limits are a constraint in structurally controlled, vein-hosted deposits where the primary ore lies in fresh rock. The planned deeper drilling will be a key de-risking milestone for the project, as it will provide the first data points on the geometry, grade, and continuity of the primary gold system.

Conclusion

The 2026 aircore program at Tiogo has materially upgraded the significance of the Desert Metals discovery. With gold mineralisation now confirmed semi-continuously over 1.5 kilometres of strike, standout grades including 4 metres at 19.48g/t gold, multiple holes ending in mineralisation at depth, and a completely untested fresh bedrock system below, the project has developed a compelling exploration narrative. The market's 30% single-session response to this news reflects the quality of the results relative to the company's pre-announcement valuation. The next major test will be deeper drilling, and how that program performs will determine whether Tiogo graduates from a high-grade surface anomaly to a genuine discovery of scale.