Centamin PLC (LON:CEY) said the 2018 drilling programme resulted in the gold miner’s mineral resources more than doubling in Cote d’Ivoire.
A maiden resource has been declared at the ABC prospect while the Doropo project mineral resource has grown by 58% after the company drilled 120,000 metres last year.
Building on these results, a further 90,000 metres is budgeted and underway for 2019, Centamin said.
READ: Gold miner Centamin slashes full-year production target as quarterly output slumps
"2018 saw a further increase in our investment and level of activity in CDI [Cote d’Ivoire ] across our 3,472km² land holding. 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,” declared Andrew Pardey, Centamin’s chief executive officer (CEO).
“Doropo continues to demonstrate the potential to be our next organic development project. Ongoing exploration and concurrent viability studies will further unlock the potential future scale of this project as we assess the economics against our internal project value creation criteria,” Pardey add.
The CEO said the group’s preliminary economic assessment at Doropo is progressing well and should be ready for publication towards the end of 2019.
“The success and scale of the 2018 ABC discovery results and the reporting of the maiden Kona South resource in less than two years of active exploration, highlights the scale and quality of the Lolosso Gold Corridor and the regional generative potential of the ABC land package,” Pardey continued.
“Centamin's core strategy remains on delivering returns using its highly cash generative business which not only delivers a high yield for its shareholders as per our sustainable dividend policy but also delivering fully funded growth from our exciting exploration portfolio,” he concluded.
Shares in the FTSE 250 gold miner were up 2.4% at 121.71p in early deals.