Tietto Minerals Ltd (ASX:TIE) has hit 3 metres at 58.61 g/t gold including 1-metre at 174.72 g/t at AG South within the Abujar-Gludehi (AG) deposit which is part of its 3.02-million-ounce Abujar Gold Project in Côte d’Ivoire.
The new results from infill extensional drilling extend the high-grade gold strike of 200 metres at AG Section lines 4-5-6 to Section Line 9 and will be included in the next Abujar resource update due by the end of June.
Tietto’s infill diamond drilling program has been extended to a cut-off date of May 24 for the inclusion of additional results in the resource update.
"Increasing confidence"
Managing director Dr Caigen Wang said the infill and extensional drilling program at AG had delivered a range of metrics including exceptionally high grades, increased resource confidence and resource growth.
“We have delivered more high‐grades with ZDD539 hitting 1-metre at 174.72 g/t gold adding to the string of high gold grades we have reported at AG South including a project best intercept of just over 1-metre at 0.53 kg/t gold which was delivered last week.
“Our infill drilling is increasing confidence in the mineral resource, confirming mineralisation at or above expectations as we close up the drill pattern to Indicated spacing."
Expecting "material increase" in reserves
He said: "We have extended the known limits of gold mineralisation at AG Core down to 560 metres below the surface and up to 200 metres downdip without deepest holes confirming this large gold system remains open at depth.
"Results from the infill program will be used in the resource update which is expected in June.
"This model will be handed over to the mining engineers for open pit optimisation studies and we expect to see a material increase in Abujar ore reserves in the DFS.
"Once the infill program is completed, we intend to use our diamond drill rigs to test the multitude of exploration targets around our proposed mill at Abujar to drive future resource growth."
Results facilitate progress towards DFS
On the development front, he said the company's recent initiatives and work program demonstrated progress towards delivery of its fully funded Abujar DFS in quarter three and more broadly, positioning the project as West Africa’s next gold mine.
New results from sections 4-5-6 include:
- 3 metres at 52.95 g/t gold from 71 metres, including 1-metre at 121 g/t;
- 4 metres at 26.05 g/t from 63 metres, including 1-metre at 50.75 g/t;
- 5 metres at 109.06 g/t from 99 metres, including 1-metre at 532.05 g/t; and
- 7 metres at 51.56 g/t from 53 metres.
Other results include 15 metres at 2.34 g/t from 558 metres, including 6 metres at 3.36 g/t gold, 3 metres at 10.85 g/t from 144 metres and 27 metres at 1.14 g/t from 347 metres, including 3 metres at 4.10 g/t.
Tietto expects recent drilling will underpin a material upgrade to Abujar ore reserves of 15.7 million tonnes at 1.7 g/t gold for 860,000 ounces at the maiden open pit and within AG of 22.9 million tonnes at 1.5 g/t gold for 1.12 million ounces.
Next steps
The company is aggressively exploring at Abujar to drive rapid resource growth by:
- Targeting 100,000 metres of diamond drilling in 2021 using its fleet of diamond drill rigs drilling at US$35/metre;
- Drill testing 8.5 kilometres of fertile Abujar main shear along strike from the existing AG and APG deposits; and
- Drill testing high-priority regional targets.
Tietto is negotiating the Abujar mining convention with the Ivorian Government, which is the final regulatory step with all mining and environmental approvals secured.