SHANTA Gold has replaced last year’s mined gold with new mineral reserves, the third successive year the company had achieved this, said CEO Eric Zurrin.
“During 2021, we invested $4.4m in exploration, with the 31,600 metres drilled in Tanzania returning 110,000 ounces of new reserves whilst also expanding our regional resources outside of the New Luika mine plan,” said Zurrin in an announcement on Tuesday.
The 110,000 oz in newly defined reserves added in 2021, before depletion, were predominantly from the Luika Underground project, the company said. New Luika’s mine life had therefore been extended to 2026 “at least”, said Zurrin.
The outcome of the drilling programme across was a total JORC 2012 compliant gold reserve of 645,000 oz grading 3.04 g/t.
There was no change in the reserves and resources of Shanta’s Tanzania project Singida up to 2029 whilst an updated resource estimate on the firm’s West Kenya project was expected at the end of February 2022.
According to a scoping study in October 2020, the West Kenya project would have average annual production of 105,000 ounces over nine-years of mine life.
It said in July last year it would produce more than 100,000 oz a year from 2022 to 2023 owing to the development of new prospects at West Kenya and Singida.
