Africa-focused gold miner Centamin (LON:CEY) (TSX:CEE) said Friday that drilling activities at its Doropo licence in Cote d’Ivoire resulted in more than doubling mineral resources estimated for the area, which remains largely underexplored with numerous targets identified.
The Doropo mineral resource grew to 2.13m ounces at 1.31 grams per tonne of gold in the indicated category, up 58% from last year, and chief executive Andrew Pardey believes its company has just “scratched the surface” of those land packages.
Centamin believes the 2,721 sq km-Doropo licence remains largely under-explored with numerous targets identified, which presents significant resource upside potential.
Building on these results, a further 90,000 metres is budgeted and underway for 2019, hesaid.
“We have only scratched the surface of the potential of these assets, and we are maintaining an intensive campaign in 2019 to define further quality gold ounces,” said Pardey in a company statement. “Doropo continues to demonstrate the potential to be our next organic development project,” he said.
“The PEA [preliminary economic assessment] is progressing well and we look forward to reporting the results to the market at the end of H2 2019,” said Pardey. “Delivery of a maiden reserve and further feasibility work are critical milestones for 2019, ahead of a board decision on capital allocated for development,” he said.
At its ABC project, Centamin met its primary objective of delivering a maiden resource estimate for one of its permits, Kona South.
The Kona South maiden resource stood at 650,000 ounces of gold at 1.03 grams per tonne in the indicated category and 450,000 at 0.87 grams of gold at the inferred category, the company said.
Exploration at the project remained ongoing, including a 34,000 metre drill programme focussing on resource development at Kona Central and Kona South, the company added.
The news were well received by investor in Centamin, which closed 2018 with disappointing figures related to its flagship Sukari gold mine in Egypt.
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