West Africa focussed gold explorer Perseus Mining (ASX, TSX: PRU) has reported an upgrade to the Sissingue Mineral Resource at the company’s Tengrela Gold Project in Ivory Coast.
The Mineral Resource at 1g/t Au cut-off, Measured and Indicated is 9.8Mt at 2.5g/t for 782,670 oz (37% higher in grade than 2009) and Inferred is 3.4Mt at 1.7g/t for 184,500 oz.
The Mineral Resource at 0.5g/t Au cut-off, Measured and Indicated is 15.2Mt at 1.9g/t for 914,550 oz (43% additional ounces) and Inferred is 7.2Mt at 1.2g/t for 274,200 oz.
The application of high grade cuts (grade capping) to the assays reduced the reported Mineral Resource grade above a 1g/t Au cut-off by 32%.
Drilling is continuing on infill, extensional targets and on other prospects at the Tengrela Project.
A definitive feasibility study is on track for completion late October 2010 and optimisation studies suggest significantly higher grades in early years than previously thought.
Mark Calderwood, managing director, said “it’s pleasing to see the significant increase in resource grade resulting from infill drilling and the subsequent increase in contained gold during conversion from Inferred to Measured and Indicated (M&I) Mineral Resources.”
“There is a good chance we can significantly increase the reportable grade by infill drilling the very high grade zones to improve confidence levels, which may lead to less gold being ‘topcut’ from the model.”
“We will also continue to expand the M&I Mineral Resource base by conversion and extensional drilling, as evidenced by results received subsequent to the current data cut-off date of 14 April 2010.”
Calderwood said preliminary pit optimisation work confirms the potential for a very robust project, with exceptional grade, low production cost per ounce, and "significantly more production in the early years than we had previously anticipated.”
“Subject to final mine scheduling, the Sissingue deposit has the potential to become a 200,000ozpa contributor in our goal to become a 450,000 to 500,000ozpa gold producer by 2013,” he added.
The 876sq km Tengrela Gold Project is located immediately south of the 6.8Moz Syama and Finkalo projects, along the same structural/stratigraphic corridor within the Syama-Boundiali greenstone belt.
The project lies 150km SSE of the Morila gold mine and 65km WNW of the Tongon deposit.