Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. (TSX: FVI) has intersected shallow, high-grade mineralization at its Sunbird drilling programme at the Séguéla Gold Project located in Côte d’Ivoire.
“Infill drilling at Sunbird to upgrade resource confidence has commenced, with the first batch of results returning shallow high-grade intersections from modelled low-grade areas from within the pit optimization shell, including highlights such as 10.6g/t Au over a true width of 21.7m in drill hole SGRC1572 and 14.9g/t Au over a true width of 14m from drill hole SGRC1570,” Senior Vice President of Exploration, Paul Weedon, said.
“In addition to the initial infill results, extension drilling to test the northern strike beyond the pit shell has been successful in intersecting additional high grade results such as 12.0g/t Au over a true width of 5.6m in drill hole SGRC1566 and 6.6g/t Au over a true width of 6.3m in drill hole SGRC1567.
“The focus at Sunbird is currently on upgrading its resource confidence with the ultimate intention of conversion to mineral reserves to expand Séguéla’s current 1.1Moz of gold reserves and nine-year life-of-mine.
“The company is looking forward to the positive outcome of the programme and the resumption of testing the high-grade depth potential beyond the current optimization shell limit.”
Infill drilling for increased resource confidence at Sunbird is underway, with 30 holes drilled in the first 4,560m completed of a 9,500m program. Drilling has continued to intersect shallow high-grade mineralization in areas previously modelled as lower-grade based on earlier wider spaced drilling. Drill hole SGRC1572 intersects several zones of mineralization including 10.6g/t Au over a true width of 21.7m and SGRC1570 intersects 14.9g/t Au over a true width of 14.0m in the north of the pit optimization shell,
Drilling to test continuity beyond the pit optimization shell to the north has also intersected broad shallow zones of mineralization including 2.5g/t Au over a true width of 19.6m from surface in drill hole SGRC1564 and 2.4g/t Au over a true width of 17.5m from surface in drill hole SGRC1581. Additional drilling is planned to further define the extent of these zones.
Drilling is scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of 2023 ahead of further optimization work and integration into the life of mine plan. Further drilling to test the depth potential of the high-grade shoots previously identified plunging to the south is planned for the second half of 2023.
Sunbird´s mineralization consists of a series of near vertical quartz dominant veins demonstrating good continuity down-dip and along strike. This reflects the strong structural control present; consistent with the majority of the deposits drilled at Séguéla to date.
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