Roscan Gold Corporation (TSXV: ROS) has unveiled its initial, pit-constrained, interim NI 43-101 compliant Mineral Resources for the Kandiole project in Mali.
The resources are reported at a gold price of only US$1,500 per oz, of 27.4 million tonnes grading 1.2 g/t Au totalling 1.02 million ounces of gold in the Indicated Category and 5.2 million tonnes grading 1.2 g/t Au totalling 198,000 ounces of gold in the Inferred category at its Kandiole project in Mali.
Roscan’s maiden pit constrained Mineral Resource includes gold mineralisation from six mineral deposits: Mankouke South, Mankouke Central, Kandiole1, Kandiole 2 and 4, Kabaya and Moussala. The discovery areas of Disse, Walia and Mankouke West were not included in the maiden resource due to lack of sufficient drilling to date but will be areas of upside for future exploration.
The cutoff date for data used in the resource estimate was March 25th 2022. Since March 25th, Roscan has continued its drilling campaign to infill and extend the saprolite resource area and to follow up on the deeper mineralisation at the Mankouke South and Kandiole targets. Drilling results have encountered plunging zones of mineralisation that remain open, which are currently being drilled and assayed.
Key Highlights:
- Robust initial Mineral Resource reported at a 0.3 g/t Au (oxide) and 0.42 (fresh) cut-off grade and US$1500 per ounce gold price.
- Indicated Mineral Resource of 27.4mt at 1.2 g/t Au (1.02 Moz), and
- Inferred Mineral Resource of 5.2mt at 1.2 g/t Au (0.20 Moz).
- Resource calculation sensitivity at a 0.5g/t Au cut-off and $1500 per ounce gold price.
- Indicated Mineral Resource of 20.0mt at 1.5 g/t Au (923 Koz), and
- Inferred Mineral Resource of 3.8mt at 1.4 g/t Au (0.18 Moz).
- Preliminary pit shells at Mankouke South indicate a low strip-ratio resource that is mostly oxide, with a robust starter pit of between 5.3 million tonnes at 2.2 g/t (386,000 ounces at 0.75 g.t cut-off) and 4.5 million tonnes at 2.6 g/t (377,000 ounces at 1.0 g.t cut-off).
- Resource model sensitivities at various gold prices highlight low strip ratios from pit shells ranging from 2.4:1 to 2:7:1 (see Table 2).
- Mineral resource with 84% captured in the indicated category and minimal sensitivity to lower gold prices.
- Further potential to improve resource estimates with LeachWELL assay process. Only 18% of current drilling has now been assayed by LeachWELL which thus far has shown substantial improvements with tested area’s lower-grades increasing between 10% and 40 %.
- Roscan plans to expand the use of LeachWELL on its existing resource base and to use it extensively for all future drilling.
- Further Exploration Upside.
- Significant potential to increase the size of the MR with both the currently ongoing and future drilling programmes.
- Identified mineralisation under continued exploration include the follow up on the oxide and sulphide mineralization at Mankouke South, Kabaya and Kandiole KN1 resource areas, including their satellites and extensions.
“This mineral resource suggests a stand-alone project status for the Kandiole Gold Project. The good metallurgical recoveries, high-grade starter pit, low strip ratios, and the high-quality resource with 84% included in the indicated resource category and 72% within saprolite, points to a potential high-margin LOM operation,” President and CEO, Nana Sangmuah, said.
“Importantly, this initial resource is just the beginning for the overall project potential, the mineral resource remains open to further growth with the pending results from our incremental drilling, which remains ongoing. In addition, there are three advanced targets and discoveries not yet captured to be included in subsequent updates, such as demonstrated by the drilling success at Walia, Disse and Kandiole North extension.
“Management intends to commence in short order environmental studies to facilitate the permitting and further de-risking project development. We are encouraged by the ultimate scale potential at the Kandiole Project which we believe has significant upside and clearly positions Roscan amongst the few junior resource companies that can transition from early exploration to a significant mining operation.”
For further information please visit: https://roscan.ca/
