JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Gold exploration and development company Kefi Minerals has determined that there is potential to mine for gold at three prospects adjacent to its one-million-ounce Tulu Kapi openpit gold mine in Ethiopia.
The gold mineralisation could potentially provide satellite feed to the central processing plant at Tulu Kapi or be developed as standalone heap leach projects.
"As we continue to make significant progress with the mine development planning at Tulu Kapi, Kefi is now [receiving] encouraging trenching results indicating deposits. We already see the potential to double the current reserve,” exploration director Jeff Rayner said in a statement on Thursday.
Two parallel shear zones immediately west of Tulu Kapi, the Komto-Guji Shear and the Bila-Gulliso Shear, were host to a number of gold prospects that had similar geology to Tulu Kapi.
Eight trenches had recently been excavated by hand in accessible areas and all trenches returned positive ore grade intercepts over a 3 km strike length, including 7 m at 7.27 g/t gold.
At the Soyoma prospect, on the Bila-Gulliso Shear, 15 km north-west of Tulu Kapi, previous wide-spaced trench sampling returned 14.2 m at 8.2 g/t.
A small gravel pit for road base was recently excavated over the top of two trenches, which revealed a series of flat-lying stacked quartz veins.
These individual veins have been channel sampled and returned best results of 3 m at 4.2 g/t, 2 m at 2.75 g/t and 1 m at 2.65 g/t gold. The vein zone and historic workings had been mapped over a 2 km strike and further trenching and drilling was planned.