Tietto Minerals Ltd (ASX:TIE) has added more high-grade gold intersections to the AG South prospect with infill drilling on the main Abujar Shear zone, hitting up to 28.74 g/t gold in one section.
Tietto’s infill drilling at AG South is designed to convert indicated resources to measured between section lines 0 to 13, intended to support the first two years of gold production at Abujar.
Assays are still pending for 77 infill diamond drilled holes for 12,811.5 metres of samples from AG South, with received results of note including:
- 2 metres at 14.64 g/t gold from 146 metres, including 1 metre at 28.74 g/t gold;
- 3 metres at 9.8 g/t gold from 170 metres, including 1 metre at 17.52 g/t gold;
- 7 metres at 4.09 g/t gold from 68 metres, including 3 metres at 8.86 g/t gold; and
- 11.50 metres at 2.31 g/t gold from 52.5 metres, including 6 metres at 3.72 g/t gold.
The company is also awaiting results for 75 diamond drilled holes targeting resource growth from prospects along strike from Abujar Gold – TIE’s six diamond rigs are hard at work, with 100,000 metres planned for 2022.
Results advance resource conversion efforts
“I am very pleased to see the high-grade intercepts from the first batch of assay results for infill drilling at AG South, where we are targeting the conversion of Indicated Resources to Measured Resources in areas that are likely to be mined within the first two years of production,” Tietto Minerals managing director Dr Caigen Wang said.
“We are looking to complete approximately 20,000 metres of drilling at AG South and expect the drilling phase to be completed by the end of May 2022.
“Our drill rigs have also been active on prospects located to the north (GGL) and south (AGM, PGL) of AG with the goal of defining new gold resources in an MRE (mineral resource estimate) update planned for later this year.
“Results will be reported from this drilling as it comes to hand. Our exploration team is going to be busy for many years testing the prospectivity of the still largely untested potential of the main Abujar Shear.
“We are fully funded to production at Abujar, which has potential to be one of the largest gold producing mines in Côte d’Ivoire, with an expected production of more than 260,000 ounces of gold in the first year and 1.2 million ounces of gold in the first six years.
“Tietto has an experienced team on board to deliver Abujar on time and on budget. We are on track to deliver another mineral resource update and first gold at Abujar later this year.
“Shareholders can expect further updates from our aggressive diamond drilling program as we advance our dual strategy of ‘Drill and Build’ and develop the Abujar Gold Project into West Africa’s next gold mine with first gold by the end of Q4 CY22.”
A definitive feasibility study for the project demonstrated robust financial potential, estimating an 11-year mine life for a net present value (NPV5) of $1.3 billion (pre-tax) and $970 million (post-tax) using a price of US$1,700 per ounce of gold and conversion rate of A$/US$=0.741.
Tietto has completed the first tranche of a two-tranche A$130 million placement, intending to fully fund the Abujar Gold Project development with no debt.