West Africa’s biggest gold miner, London- and Toronto-listed Endeavour Mining, continues to prove that it is one of the world’s most successful gold explorers, with an impressive maiden resource now in place for Tanda-Iguela – its latest significant greenfield gold discovery.
With an indicated resource of 14.9 Mt at 2.33 g/t Au for 1.1 Moz and an inferred resource of 3.29 Mt at 1.80 g/t Au for 1.9 Moz, Tanda- Iguela is shaping up as another flagship asset for Endeavour, whose four operating mines in Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Burkina Faso are expected to produce more than 1 Moz of gold in 2023.
Tanda-Iguela is located in the eastern part of Côte d’Ivoire within the Boundoukou Birimian greenstone belt, approximately 400 km northeast of Abidjan and 30 km from the border with Ghana. The property is composed of two neighbouring exploration permits, Tanda and Iguela. The Tanda permit, covering 395 km2, was introduced into Endeavour’s portfolio in late 2015 as a result of the La Mancha transaction, while the Iguela permit, covering 298 km2, was awarded to Endeavour in 2017 through the normal permitting application process.
During 2018 and 2019, an initial geochemical campaign, consisting of 3 436 samples, was conducted over Iguela. Coupled with considerable fieldwork and mapping, the campaign outlined a series of significant potential gold occurrences and exploration targets, with the most attractive anomalies located right over the structural contact, extending over more than 15 km and separating the Birimian volcanics and Tarkwaian sediments.
Due to the positive initial assay results from a target known as Assafou, including multiple thick high-grade gold intercepts, most of the drilling was quickly focused on this area resulting in a maiden resource based on 303 drill holes amounting to 58 388 m.
In Endeavour’s announcement of the maiden resource in November 2022, Sébastien de Montessus, the company’s President and CEO, described the discovery as one of the most significant made in West Africa over the past decade.
“Endeavour Mining’s Tanda- Iguela greenfield gold discovery in Côte d’Ivoire promises to strengthen the company’s exploration credentials.”
Marcus Courage
An aggressive RC and diamond drilling programme is currently underway at Tanda- Iguela to delineate further resources and test new targets. Endeavour recently reported that more than 81 km of drilling had been completed at the Assafou deposit and more than 95 km on the wider Tanda-Iguela property in H1-2023.
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According to Endeavour’s Executive VP Exploration and Growth, Patrick Bouisset, an initial analysis of the ore characteristics and orebody shape of the discovery suggest that it should be amenable to open-pit mining as mineralisation starts at surface. “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,” he added.
Endeavour has the largest exploration presence in West Africa and uses a proven ranking and screening methodology – based on techniques used in the oil and gas sector – to select its top targets. It has discovered approximately 15 Moz of M&I resources since mid-2016 and will have spent US$80 million on brownfield and greenfield exploration in 2023.