Altus Strategies records ‘excellent’ gold recoveries at Tabakorole
Mining royalty group, (ALS ), said it has recorded ‘excellent’ gold recoveries from preliminary metallurgical testwork undertaken on composite samples of fresh rock collected from core drilling at the FT Prospect of its Tabakorole gold project in Southern Mali.
Bottle roll tests on core samples from Diamond Drilling ("DD") at the FT Prospect indicate a straightforward, clean and non refractory ore with low reagent consumption, as well as high gold recoveries of 92.7% to 96.6% for grind sizes (P80) of 75 microns to 150 microns.
The project hosts a mineral deposit for which a mineral resource estimate (MRE) has been generated. This comprises 16.6-million tonnes at 1.2 g/t gold for 620 000 oz in the inferred category and 7.3-million tonnes at 1.2 g/t gold for 290 000 oz in the indicated category.
Altus highlighted that 43% of the current MRE, which is in accordance with the Joint Ore Reserves Committee code, is situated within 100m of surface. The Company told investors that a 6 300 m resource expansion reverse circulation drilling programme is now underway.
Altus noted that exploration activities at the Tabakorole project are being funded by Marvel Gold Limited (ASX: MVL) ("Marvel") under its joint venture ("JV") alongside the Company.
Marvel has now earned a 51% interest in the project and has paid Altus $0.2m in cash and it has started JV Stage 3 in order to earn an aggregate 70% by expending $3m. Meanwhile, Altus Strategies holds a 2.5% net smelter return gold production royalty on Tabakorole.
"The results of the preliminary metallurgical testwork on fresh rock from drill core at the FT prospect of the Tabakorole project are excellent,” said CEO of Altus, Steven Poulton.
He further commented, “Non-refractory mineralisation with high gold recoveries highlights the potential for a simple, industry standard gold processing flowsheet. Future metallurgical testwork is expected to include potential optimisations of grind size and residence times.
Tabakorole hosts a significant gold resource which is open along strike in both directions, and at depth. The project is emerging as a significant west African gold deposit and these metallurgical testwork results represent a significant step in advancing the Project.”
Shares in Altus Strategies have more than doubled since the beginning of December 2020 to open 1.17% higher at 86.5p this morning following the two announcements.
Meanwhile, in a separate statement released this morning, the Company noted the completion of the stage-1 Reverse Circulation ("RC") drilling programme and associated passive seismic surveys at its Lakanfla gold project which is located in western Mali.
Exploration activities at Lakanfla are also being funded by Marvel Gold under the JV.
The JV stage-1 drilling programme and seismic surveys conducted at the Lakanfla project have successfully proven the existence of a karst style system, helping to define the likely size and shape of the karst system and returning multiple intersections of anomalous gold.
A three-dimensional structural interpretation created based on the passive seismic survey data will be used to guide follow up drilling to better target the 'shoulders' of the central granodiorite body, which may host a supergene blanket of enriched gold mineralisation.
The next stage of exploration will focus on refining the karst model and associated targeting of gold mineralisation, delineating and developing existing gold mineralisation as well as systematic exploration across the Project outside of the karst target and granite intrusion.
Altus noted that Lakanfla has had “significant inherent value” from existing near-surface gold mineralisation that has already been defined by historical drilling and significant hard rock artisanal gold workings within and around the central granodiorite intrusion.
Poulton said, “Soil geochemistry completed in tandem with the drilling programme has defined a number of highly encouraging targets, with peak values of 39.1 g/t and 4.2 g/t Au in soils.
The first of these samples were located in a new area in the north of the Lakanfla licence, around 4km from the former (karst-style) open pits of the Sadiola gold mine. These targets do not appear to have any associated artisanal workings and as such represent new targets.”
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