KEFI Gold and Copper PLC (AIM:KEFI, OTC:KFFLF) has released a maiden resource estimate for the Al Godeyer project, part of the Hawiah Complex, in Saudi Arabia.
The project is held inside KEFI's Saudi Arabian joint-venture, Gold and Minerals Company Limited.
The new resource is estimated at 1.35mln of 0.6% copper, 0.54% zinc, 1.4 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 6.6 g/t silver.
On 9 January 2023, KEFI also released details of a resource at the nearby Hawiah deposit.
Al Godyer continues to be open at depth and along strike. The resource confirms the potential for an initial open-pit mining operation at Hawiah.
Early oxide metallurgical testwork indicates that the Al Godeyer ore can be processed at the Hawiah plant located 12 kilometres from site.
Drilling, planned to commence in the second quarter of 2023, will be aimed at converting unclassified areas of the deposit to the inferred category and to further test the strike extent of the orebody.
Concurrent drilling planned at Hawiah will focus on upgrading and further expanding on the overall resources.
"This Al Godeyer maiden copper-zinc-gold-silver mineral resource has confirmed the clear potential to support the Hawiah project, at this stage lifting to over 12mln tonnes the total tonnage being considered for the open pit scenario,” said Harry Anagnostaras-Adams, executive chairman of KEFI in a statement.
"Feedback from the early metallurgical testwork is particularly exciting and demonstrates the amenability of Al Godeyer to provide additional open pit feed material to the proposed Hawiah Complex. The work completed at Al Godeyer further demonstrates our ability to discover and rapidly advance projects in our ever-growing exploration portfolio within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with the GMCO team taking the Al Godeyer target from a mineral occurrence to a JORC compliant resource in a little over a year," he added.
Anagnostaras-Adams went on to talk of upcoming activities in Saudi Arabia, noting: "Elsewhere within the Kingdom, the Jibal Qutman project is advancing on schedule with our aim to start construction by the end of 2023. The Hawiah pre-feasibility Study is currently being finalised and drilling is set to shortly recommence on the Hawiah site.
"This drilling is primarily focused on converting inferred resources to the indicated category, but is also aiming at extending the planned mine life by further increasing the Hawiah Mineral Resource in a few key areas.”
Anagnostaras-Adams also said that conditions in Ethiopia, where KEFI has a major gold development project, have improved significantly over the past 18 months.