Tietto Minerals Ltd (ASX:TIE) continues to fast track the development of its Abujar Gold Project in West Africa with conversion infill drilling intersecting high-grade gold intercepts in the Abujar-Gludehi (AG) core deposit.
Drilling intended to convert indicated resources of 35 million tonnes at 1.5 g/t gold for 1.65 million ounces to the measured category at the deposit returned up to 8 metres at 12.43 g/t gold from 187 metres including 2 metres at 48.37 g/t.
Other highlight intercepts are:
- 12 metres at 6.1 g/t gold from 208 metres including 10 metres at 7.15 g/t;
- 18 metres at 4.36 g/t from 214 metres including 3 metres at 18.25 g/t;
- 9 metres at 6.97 g/t from 227 metres including 6 metres at 10.07 g/t; and
- 14 metres at 3.27 g/t from 162 metres including 9 metres at 4.78 g/t.
The company believes converting these resources to the measured category will support gold production at Abujar for the first two years of mine life, having targeted only 120 metres of vertical depth for exploration so far.
Teitto is planning to produce first gold from the Abujar Project in the fourth quarter of 2022.
“Impressive results”
“Our fifth batch of results from our infill drilling program at Abujar is delivering up more high-grade gold intercepts that continue to de-risk open pit mining at Abujar,” Teitto managing director Dr Caigen Wang said.
“The infill program is designed to convert indicated resources to measured resources, which are scheduled to be mined within the first two years of production.
“These impressive results follow our DFS last month that confirmed Abujar’s potential to be one of the largest gold producing mines in Côte d’Ivoire, expected to produce more than 260,000 ounces of gold in the first year and 1.2 million ounces of gold in the first six years.
“We are also extremely pleased with the quality of the institutions that have indicated their interest to provide the project funds needed to develop the Abujar Gold Project into West Africa’s next gold mine, as announced earlier this week.”
Shares this morning have been as much as 6.9% higher to A$0.465 while the company's market cap pre-open was approximately $201.5 million.
Read: Tietto Minerals fields strong interest for Abujar Gold Project funding
Updated resource estimate
These results mark the fifth batch of assays received from more than 30,000 metres of infill diamond drilling program; line spaced at 25 metres each.
The company is still waiting for 19,312.5 metres of assay results from 99 holes, expected to be received in late November. The diamond drilling will continue on-site, with an updated resource estimate expected at the end of this financial year.
A definitive feasibility study for Abujar published last month demonstrated the financial potential of the project, projecting first-year gold production of 260,000 ounces and 200,000 ounces per year over the first six years of Abujar’s 11-year mine life, for an NPV5% of A$1.3 billion (pre-tax) and $0.97 billion (post-tax) using a gold price of US$1,700/ounce and an exchange rate of A$/US$=0.74.
Next steps
With A$32.8 million cash at the end of September 2021, Tietto remains well positioned to advance its dual strategy in 2021:
- Continue to drive rapid resource growth at the 3.35-million-ounce Abujar Gold Project; and
- Fast-track development of the Abujar Gold Project.
Tietto will continue aggressively exploring at Abujar to drive rapid resource growth through:
- Targeting 100,000 metres of diamond drilling in 2021 using six company-owned 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.