Endeavour Mining Corporation (TSE:EDV) (OTCMKTS: EDVMF), the Africa-focused gold miner, had more positive news Tuesday, as it has extended mineralization from exploration at three of its recent discoveries at its Houndé mine in Burkina Faso.
The three discoveries of Kari Pump, Kari West and Kari Center are within the large 6km by 3km Kari anomaly where around 25% of the target is still to be drilled.
READ: Endeavour Mining lifts gold reserves at Houndé mine by 41% with Kari Pump discovery adding 710,000 ounces
In all, 104,000 meters have been drilled since November last year in the area and the program has been highly successful as 85% of holes have encountered meaningful mineralization, resulting in the extension of all three discoveries.
“With more than half of the 2019 planned 195,000-meter drilling program completed to date, we are extremely pleased with the results...," said Patrick Bouisset, executive president of exploration and growth at Endeavour.
He added that these results boosted the group's confidence that maiden resources will be delineated for Kari West and Kari Center before year's end. The firm is eyeing the fourth quarter.
"We look forward to continuing to build on our recent value creation success, as noted with the recently published maiden reserve at Kari Pump which was discovered at a cost of less than $13.50/oz of reserve.”
Last week, the company issued a maiden reserve at the Kari Pump area of 7.3 million tonnes at 3.01 g/t (grams per ton) of the yellow metal for 710,000 ounces, which lifted Houndé’s total reserves by an impressive 41%.
Just one of three discoveries
Kari Pump is just one of the three discoveries in the larger Kari area (and lies 7 kilometers west of the processing plant), where a 200,000 meter drilling campaign with a budget of $17 million is now underway mainly focused on the adjacent Kari West and Kari Center.
Metallurgical and geotechnical tests are already being carried out at both Kari Center and Kari West, and an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the Kari area is underway.
An updated mine plan and technical report, integrating Kari Pump, Center and West, is expected to be released following the publication of maiden reserves at the Kari West and Center discoveries.
Notable intercepts of recent drilling include 6.09 g/t (grams per ton) gold at Kari Pump extension drilling; 2.5m at 17.62 g/t gold at Kari Center Main, 8.2m at 2.75 g/t gold at Kari Center South and 21.3m at 6.98 g/t (grams per ton) gold at Kari West.
Endeavour operates four mines across Côte d’Ivoire (Agbaou and Ity) and Burkina Faso (Houndé, Karma) which are expected to produce between 615 and 695,000 ounces at an AISC (all in sustaining cost) of between US$760 and US$810 per ounce.
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