JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-quoted Armadale Capital plans to kick off an extensive exploration programme to identify further prospects to expand the current 678 000 oz gold mineral resource of the Mpokoto gold project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A 2 000 m auger drill programme followed by a 2 500 m diamond drill programme would be initiated this year, with a view to expand the total mineral resource extracted from 14.58-million tonnes at 1.45 g/t of gold at a cutoff grade of 0.5 g/t, extend the life of the mine beyond the initial nine-year outlook and improve the overall project economics.
The exploration programme would be funded through a £210 000 raising after the placement of seven-million new ordinary shares of 0.1p at a price of 3p apiece with existing investors.
Meanwhile, discussions with Africa Mining Contracting Services to finalise $20-million in project financing continued.
“Both parties understand the positive impact an increase in life-of-mine and resources will have on the economics of the project and remain confident of finalising the details of the financing,” said Armadale director Dr Andrew Tunks.
“The exploration programme will initially target, with auger drilling, oxide mineralisation to the north and south of the main orebodies where mineralisation remains open along strike, and then the high-grade mineralisation adjacent to previous hole MPD064, which intercepted 55 m at 3.8 g/t gold, including 15.4 m at 10.5 g/t gold with the diamond drilling programme,” the company concluded.