Ariana Resources PLC (AIM:AAU) has published a revised resource estimate for the Dokwe project in Zimbabwe showing a 40% increase in gold ounces to 1.83 million.
Overall, the Global JORC 2012 resource now is 55.9Mt at a grade of 1.02g/t.
Of that, 1.34 million ounces (previously 1.2m oz) are in the measured and indicated category with Inferred Resources at 490,000oz (previously 23,000z).
Reserves were unchanged from a 2022 pre-feasibility study at 800,000 oz but studies on pit optimisation are underway to improve this.
Ariana owns 2.1% of Rockover Holding [which owns 100% of Dokwe] but has signed a conditional agreement to merge the two companies.
Zack van Coller and the internal technical team prepared the new resource using data acquired from 2004 to 2023 over ten phases of drilling.
An update to the earlier pre-feasibility study is underway Ariana said, with the expectation that this will form part of a future feasibility study once the merger is concluded.
Kerim Sener, Ariana’s managing director, commented that the new resource estimate demonstrated the potential at Dokwe.
“A significant contribution to this uplift is due to the update of Dokwe Central in compliance with JORC 2012. Measured and Indicated Resources currently comprise 73% of the total resource, much of which sits within the historic optimised pits.
“If Inferred Resources are also included, approximately 1.1Moz of gold sits within the previously designed or optimised pits.
“This suggests the potential to significantly enhance Reserves (currently 0.8Moz of gold) in future economic studies.”
New pit optimisations for Dokwe are due in the coming weeks, he said, to better constrain the specific part of the open pit accessible part of the resource.
“The prior optimisations on which the present in-pit resources were constrained were undertaken at a gold price of US$1,800 per ounce and are now considered too conservative for long-term planning purposes.
“The new pit optimisations will be undertaken at US$2,000 and US$2,500 per ounce, reflective of the current price range of the commodity.
Sener also sees opportunities for significant exploration upside to the established resources at North and Central, in addition to ‘camp-scale’ potential in the wider area.
"Ultimately, we see an opportunity to define a multi-million-ounce resource development project at Dokwe.”