Definitely on the cards for 2024/25, initial scoping studies...

Definitely on the cards for 2024/25, initial scoping studies will be extremely attractive but it'll depend on whether the big players want to see PFS/DFS etc before securing the deposits and/or a JV. Not to mention Karakasso already a 82%/18% JV with Endeavour, EDV spent about $7mill alone on it in 2021.

If you look at how much EDV is spending on Bantou, they're really aggressive at the moment.

Just last quarter from EDV:

In Burkina Faso, drilling on the Bantou exploration property continued in Q3-2022, focussed on in-filling and converting Inferred resources to Indicated status. During Q4-2022, resource modelling will incorporate new drill results, incorporating the higher grade mineralised zones identified this year. An updated resource is expected to be incorporated within the Group’s year-end resource update. During H2-2022, resource conversion drilling will continue to delineate the high grade mineralisation.

As most larger companies go, they're happy to fork out more money in order to confirm that there is something in the ground, than to fully explore it themselves and spending millions digging into nothing!