Gold producer Endeavour Mining has said that it’s about 70% of the way through planned drilling at its key Côte d’Ivoire project for 2023, but results so far have been promising.
The company, with exploration assets across West Africa, said 123km has been drilled at its Tanda-Iguela projects so far this year with plans for an additional 55km before the year is out, well ahead of the 70km initially planned.
Over 108km of drilling has taken place at the Assafou deposit, with the goal of converting ‘inferred’ resources to ‘indicated’ status and extending the mineralised system.
An updated mineral resource estimate for Assafou will be published later this year, but Endeavour says that drill results obtained so far “continue to demonstrate [Tanda-Iguela’s] potential to become Endeavour’s next cornerstone asset”.
Commenting on the project, Endeavour’s president and chief executive Sébastien de Montessus said: “Given the significance of the discovery made last year at our Tanda-Iguela greenfield property in Côte d’Ivoire, it has quickly become our largest exploration focus across the group with a 180,000 metre drill programme currently underway.
“Following the definition of a maiden resource last year, we are thrilled with the drill results obtained so far this year, as they reaffirm Tanda-Iguela’s potential to be a tier 1 asset. Drilling has successfully extended the Assafou mineralised trend, and we are eager to publish an updated resource estimate later this year, which is expected to result in a material increase in the overall resource base with a greater proportion into the Indicated category. Additionally, we are very pleased to have also confirmed mineralisation at several nearby targets.”