KEFI Gold and Copper (AIM: KEFI) has released a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) at the Al Godeyer Project, which forms part of the Hawiah Complex, all part of KEFI’s Saudi Arabian joint-venture Gold and Minerals Company Limited (GMCO).
In Saudi Arabia, the Jibal Qutman Gold Project, the Hawiah Copper-Gold Project and the other Saudi projects are under GMCO (now planned to be 25 to 30% owned by KEFI).
n Ethiopia, the Tulu Kapi Gold Project is under TKGM (now planned to be 70-80% owned by KEFI). Final beneficial ownership will depend on project financing requirements.
Highlights
• Maiden Al Godeyer Inferred Open-Pit Mineral Resource Estimate of 1.35Mt at 0.6% copper, 0.54% zinc, 1.4g/t gold and 6.6g/t silver potentially complements the Inferred Resources reported for the Open-Pit Scenario at the nearby Hawiah deposit of 11.1Mt, as announced by KEFI on 9 January 2023.
• Al Godyer continues to be open at depth and along strike
• This reaffirms the potential for an initial open-pit mining operation at Hawiah as does early oxide metallurgical testwork which indicates that the Al Godeyer ore can be processed at the Hawiah plant located 12km from the site.
• Drilling planned to commence in Q2 2023 will be aimed at converting unclassified areas of the deposit to the Inferred category and to further test the strike extent of the orebody.
• Concurrent drilling planned at Hawiah will focus on upgrading and further expanding its total resources reported on 9 January 2023 of 29.0Mt at 0.89% copper, 0.94% zinc, 0.67g/t gold and 10.1g/t silver.
“This Al Godeyer maiden copper-zinc-gold-silver Mineral Resource has confirmed the clear potential to support the Hawiah project, at this stage lifting to over 12Mt the total tonnage being considered for the Open-Pit Scenario,” Executive Chairman, Harry Anagnostaras-Adams, said.
“Feedback from the early metallurgical testwork is particularly exciting and demonstrates the amenability of Al Godeyer to provide additional open pit feed material to the proposed Hawiah Complex.
“The work completed at Al Godeyer further demonstrates our ability to discover and rapidly advance projects in our ever-growing exploration portfolio within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with the GMCO team taking the Al Godeyer target from a mineral occurrence to a JORC compliant resource in a little over a year.
“Elsewhere within the Kingdom, the Jibal Qutman project is advancing on schedule with our aim to start construction by the end of 2023. The Hawiah Pre–feasibility Study is currently being finalized and drilling is set to shortly recommence on the Hawiah site. This drilling is primarily focused on converting Inferred Resources to the Indicated category, but is also aiming at extending the planned mine life by further increasing the Hawiah Mineral Resource in a few key areas.
“KEFI has very exciting growth prospects in both Saudi Arabia and in Ethiopia, where our working environments have improved enormously over the past 18 months.”
Al Godeyer Work Programme for 2023
Looking forward to 2023, further diamond drilling and additional trenching is being planned to upgrade the ‘unclassified areas’ of the deposit to the Inferred category. In addition to this, further metallurgical test work will be undertaken. If results are in line with expectations, then additional drilling will be planned to upgrade the Resource to the Indicated classification for use in the Hawiah Complex Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) and Reserve calculations.
Maiden Al Godeyer MRE
The maiden MRE for the Al Godeyer deposit and now totals: – 1.35Mt at 0.6% copper, 0.54% zinc, 1.40g/t gold and 6.6g/t silver.
Based on this MRE, the Al Godeyer deposit is estimated to contain a total of 8,100t or 17.9Mlbs of copper, 7,200t or 15.9Mlbs of zinc, 60,400 gold ounces and 284,600 silver ounces.
For further information please visit: https://www.kefi-goldandcopper.com/
