Tietto Minerals Ltd (ASX:TIE) has been granted a Mining Licence which paves the way for the 3.2-million-ounce Abujar Gold Project in Côte d’Ivoire to become West Africa’s next gold mine.
The licence covers an area of 120.36 square kilometres hosting the resource and has been granted by Côte d’Ivoire’s Le Ministère des Mines, du Pétrole et de l’Energieh (Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Energy).
The company will now work with the Ivoirian Government to agree on terms and conditions for the project’s Mining Convention.
“Another milestone”
Tietto managing director Dr Caigen Wang said: “Another milestone is secured following the grant of the Mining Licence for our 3.02-million-ounce Abujar Gold Project.
"We are in the final leg of the permitting process (ESIA ‐ Environmental approval secured in October 2020), with negotiations beginning on the terms and conditions of the Mining Convention and expect to conclude these discussions in the first half of 2021.”
Program schedule.
Early site works
The company’s board has approved US$2.5 million of early site works including site access upgrade, camp improvement and purchase of long-lead items in anticipation of this final approval and completion of the pre-feasibility study (PFS).
"Tietto’s board recently approved expenditure to advance local site works and secure long-lead items in anticipation of securing this final approval,” the MD said.
“Work on the Abujar PFS remains on track and we expect to deliver the results in quarter one of 2021.”
Plan view showing the location of the Abujar Gold Project.
Systematic exploration
Systematic exploration over the 70-kilometre strike of the Abujar project’s three tenements has identified three mineralised gold corridors - West Corridor, Central Corridor and East Corridor.
In total, the company has defined 33 gold prospects to date including 20 gold prospects inside the mining licence with gold resource upside to be realised through the ongoing diamond drilling.
The existing resource covers three deposits within the Central Corridor:
- AG (Abujar Gludehi): 49.6 million tonnes at 1.5 g/t for 2.3 million ounces;
- APG (Abujar Pischon and Golikro): 31 million tonnes at 0.7 g/t for 700,000 ounces; and
- SG (South Gamina): 500,000 tonnes at 1.4 g/t for 200,000 ounces.
The combined strike length of these three prospects accounts for about 10% of the overall strike length of the 70-kilometre gold corridor.
70,000-metre program
There is strong potential to grow the resource and diamond drill rigs have started a new 70,000-metre program with more than 1,500 samples awaiting lab assay.
It is planned to use six company-owned diamond drill rigs to complete the exploration drilling by the third quarter of 2021.
Wang said: “Exploration drilling continues to ramp-up following completion of the Côte d’Ivoire general election, and we look forward to reporting results in coming weeks and months from this aggressive program designed to grow Abujar gold resources at extremely low drilling costs.”
Abujar deposits and exploration targets.
Well-funded
The company is well-funded to continue delivering project milestones and advance towards production with approximately A$60 million in cash to hand.
"The company is well-funded to deliver our dual-track strategy and we continue to move closer to our goal of developing Abujar into West Africa’s next gold mine,” Wang added.
“The board and I would like to acknowledge and thank the Government of Côte d’Ivoire and its officers as well as local communities for the support shown to our team.
"We also wish to thank our team for their professionalism and work ethic that made this milestone possible.”