JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Results from a drilling programme at dual-listed Endeavour Mining Corporation’s Agbaou gold mine, in Côte d’Ivoire, have confirmed extensions of mineralisation in the West pit area and delineated the higher-grade zones at Beta and Gamma, the company said on Monday.
The next phase of the group’s 2015 drilling programme would focus on ensuring that these zones were brought into reserves at the end of this year, while strike extent testing would continue, said CEO Neil Woodyer.
“Intersecting high-grade mineralisation, including 16.47 g/t over 8.3 m at Beta and 12.15 g/t over 9.4 m at Gamma, confirms the exciting potential we have to continue to extend mine life at Agbaou,” he commented.
Of the 220 holes, totalling 22 004 m, completed during the programme, 78% intersected mineralisation, which Endeavour believed demonstrated the continuity of grades and widths and confirmed the interpretation of the Omega and Sigma mineralised zones as extensions of the mineralisation along the same structures that hosted the West pit mineralisation.
Oxidation extended to depths of between 40 m and 60 m throughout much of the area, it added.
A follow-up drill programme had, meanwhile, started and included a total of 21 800 m of reverse circulation, diamond drill holes and infill drilling, further exploration of the Gamma and Sigma zones, as well as the testing of geophysical targets southwest of Sigma and in the Agbaou South area, 3 km south-west of the South pit.