KEFI Minerals PLC (LON:KEFI) has received confirmation from the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas that its proposals for exploration in the wider Tulu Kapi district area will be granted upon commencement of development at Tulu Kapi gold project itself.
Meanwhile, the project development plans have been adjusted to incorporate an extra 25% ore processing capacity, to accommodate anticipated increased production. In addition, the funding of the planned exploration has been built into the project finance plans.
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The area under consideration covers approximately 70km by 15km, or around 1,000 km2, covering known prospects within an economic trucking distance to the planned processing plant.
"The exploration area reserved for KEFI covers numerous prospects in highly prospective structural corridors, such as shallow gold mineralisation west of Tulu Kapi and high-grade gold-copper mineralisation north of Tulu Kapi - the common denominator being that all are within trucking distance of the planned Tulu Kapi processing infrastructure,” said KEFI's executive chairman, Harry Anagnostaras-Adams.
"It is in all stakeholders' interests for KEFI to fully explore the Tulu Kapi District in order to maximise the scale and longevity of the operation. KEFI is confident that its focused exploration programs will yield further economic discoveries in the district.”