logo-loader

Tietto Minerals continues diamond drilling at Abujar in Côte D’Ivoire ahead of gold resource upgrade

Last updated: 01:06 23 Jul 2020 EDT, First published: 00:06 23 Jul 2020 EDT

Snapshot

In its latest quarterly report, the company highlighted outstanding metallurgical test-work results which demonstrate the strong economic potential for a low-cost operation at Abujar.

Tietto Minerals Ltd - Tietto Minerals continues diamond drilling program at Abujar Gold Project in Côte D’Ivoire ahead of mineral resource upgrade

Tietto Minerals Ltd (ASX:TIE) is on-track to increasing the 2.2-million-ounce gold resource at the Abujar Gold Project in Côte D’Ivoire with highly encouraging results being returned from an ongoing extensive diamond drilling campaign.

In its latest quarterly report for the period ending June 30, the company said that it had completed 21,234 metres of drilling during the three months with less than 8,000 metres remaining in the 50,000-metre program.

The company had a cash balance of $11.4 million at the end of June.

Resource estimate expected

An Abujar resource estimate is expected during the current quarter incorporating results from drilling focused at four separate prospects within the project:

  • AG – extending high-grade core of 19.3 million tonnes at 2.2 g/t gold for 1.38 million ounces;
  • AG South – shallow high-grade gold mineralisation directly south of AG;
  • APG – extension to the shallow resource of 11.2 million tonnes at 1 g/t for 350,000 ounces; and
  • GGL – directly north of AG with extensive artisanal workings.

In May, Tietto reported results from AG that extended gold mineralisation to more than 100 metres below the existing resource model, with mineralisation intersected down to 460 metres below surface.

Best results included 5 metres at 14.24 g/t from 401 metres, including 2 metres at 34.7 g/t and 8 metres at 3.12 g/t from 276 metres.

Subsequent results

On July 2, the company received further high-grade drilling results including 7 metres at 8.16 g/t from 440 metres, including 3 metres at 17.16 g/t which led Tietto to test the depth extents of the AG system to below 550 metres below surface.

Notable subsequent results from the latest round of drilling include 5 metres at 8.31 g/t from 417 metres, including 2 metres at 19.94 g/t and 1-metre at 35.14 g/t from 368 metres.

These new results, together with numerous strong intersections reported from outside the existing mineral resource over the past several months are expected to result in a positive uplift in the next mineral resource estimate.

Metallurgical test-work

During the quarter independent test-work was completed on samples from the Abujar project, which demonstrated highly favourable characteristics for low-cost processing such as:

  • Free milling ores – high gravity gold and CIL gold recoveries delivering up to 98-99% overall gold recoveries;
  • High gold recovery at coarse grind sizes ranging from 96% (180 µm) to 98% (106 µm) for fresh ore;
  • Notable low energy and low reagent requirements;
  • Simple flowsheet – single-stage crusher with SAG mill circuit (SSAG) with gravity and CIL for gold recovery; and
  • Test-work completed on representative samples from the AG deposit.

Samples were divided into nine composites on the basis of their ore type and proximity

Mining lease application

Through its 90% subsidiary Tiebaya Gold Sarl, the company applied for a gold mining licence within the Abujar Middle Tenement, which is part of the Abujar project.

The mining tenement applications covers 120.36 square kilometres.

Tietto appointed Ivorian environment specialist EnviTec to undertake an environmental and social impact study work in April 2020.

Field baseline survey studies have been completed and the company is reviewing these reports.  

Next steps

A general meeting between government and local communities to promote the Abujar Gold Project for mine development is set to take place in mid to late July and a public opinion poll on the environmental study will begin in August.

ARway.ai announces multiple new SaaS developer contracts in both the United...

ARway.ai (CSE:ARWY, OTCQB:ARWYF) Chief Executive Officer Evan Gappelberg joined Steve Darling from Proactive to announce multiple new SaaS developer sign-ups for its augmented reality experience platform, focusing on AR indoor navigation. These partnerships represent significant milestones in...

1 hour, 18 minutes ago