Toronto- and London-listed Endeavour Mining has announced a significant discovery at its Tanda-Iguela project, in Côte d’Ivoire, affirming its potential to be another flagship asset for the gold miner.
In particular, the company announced a maiden indicated resource for the Assafou target of 14.9-million tonnes grading 2.33 g/t for 1.1-million ounces, as well as an inferred resource of 32.9-million tonnes grading 1.8 g/t for 1.9-million ounces.
Endeavour finds the project has thick high-grade mineralisation with total cumulated intercepts of up to 100 m in true thickness, with an average grade of 3 g/t gold.
There is significant potential to expand the Assafou target as its indicated resource only covers about 20% of the 3-km-long identified mineralised system, which is open along strike and at depth.
Endeavour says Assafou’s structural geological trend extends more than 15 km, with several high-quality gold-in-soil anomalies.
“Based on the initial analysis of the ore characteristics and orebody shape, we believe it should be amenable to openpit mining as mineralisation starts at surface, while preliminary metallurgical test work done to date suggests the potential for very high gold recovery rates.
“The geological context, coupled with the occurrence of greater than 30-m-thick high-grade intercepts at depth, also suggests the possibility for future underground mining potential,” notes Endeavour exploration and growth VP Patrick Bouisset.
Another ten highly prospective targets have been identified on the Tanda-Iguela property, which the company intends to explore through a 70 000 m drill programme planned for next year.
The company aims to delineate further resources at Assafou and test new targets.
The exploration findings on Tanda-Iguela follow Endeavour starting construction at the 2.7-million-ounce Lafigué project, also in Côte d’Ivoire.
“With this new important discovery and exploration success, we are well on track to achieve our target of discovering between 15-million to 20-million ounces for the five years ending 2025,” Endeavour CEO and president Sébastien de Montessus states.