JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Gold exploration and development company Hummingbird Resources was aiming to deliver the optimisation studies for its Yanfolila project, in Mali, by the end of this year, with construction expected to start in the first quarter of next year.
The company on Tuesday announced that an infill and extension drilling programme had been completed to increase confidence in, and extend, the existing oxide and transitional zone resources across four of the deposits within the Yanfolila project.
"[This programme yielded] some of the highest-grade drill results in the company's history and reaffirm our confidence in the quality of the Yanfolila project. These results will augment existing desktop remodelling and will allow us to update the oxide and transitional resources in the near future,” Hummingbird CEO Dan Betts commented.
He added that the data from this work programme would also further guide the engineering work being completed and was expected to reflect positively on the project’s life-of-mine and financial model.
Meanwhile, Hummingbird noted that, while the first case of Ebola had been reported in Mali, this case was more than 800 km by road from the Yanfolila project.
“In both Nigeria and Senega [where early detection and containment was achieved], those countries are now free of the disease and it is hoped that this will also be the case in Mali. The company continues to monitor the situation and has exercised all necessary procedures to ensure the safety of its in-country staff as it works towards the delivery of the optimisation studies,” Hummingbird said.