Centamin to press ahead with economic assessment of Doporo in Côte d’Ivoire

AN increase in mineral resources in land packages held by Egyptian gold mining firm, Centamin, in Côte d’Ivoire, has been described as merely “scratching the surface” by CEO, Andrew Pardey who said the West African country’s Doropo prospect had the potential to become the firm’s next project.

The UK-listed firm today said mineral resources identified in property totalling 3,472 square kilometres had increased 100%. At Doropo, some 2.13 million ounces of gold in the indicated category, and 0.8 million oz in inferred mineral resources, at a gold cut-off of 0.5 grams per tonne (g/t), had been discovered.

At the ABC Project, a maiden resource estimate had been declared at its Kona South prospect, at a 0.5 g/t gold cut-off. This translated into 19.6 million ore tonnes at 1.03 g/t gold in the indicated category for 650,000 oz of gold; and 16.1 million ore tonnes at 0.87 g/t gold in the inferred category for approximately 450,000 oz of gold.

“We have only scratched the surface of the potential of these assets, and we are maintaining an intensive campaign in 2019 to define further quality gold ounces,” said Pardey in a company statement. “Doropo continues to demonstrate the potential to be our next organic development project,” he said.

“The PEA [preliminary economic assessment] is progressing well and we look forward to reporting the results to the market at the end of H2 2019,” said Pardey. “Delivery of a maiden reserve and further feasibility work are critical milestones for 2019, ahead of a board decision on capital allocated for development,” he said.