London-listed Resolute Mining has published an updated mineral resource estimate for the Syama North project, in Mali, increasing its contained ounces by 40% to two-million ounces.

The project is located near its Syama underground mine, which currently produces around 135 000 oz/y of gold through a sulphide circuit.

Syama North’s mineral resource now has 20-million tonnes grading 3.1 g/t gold, to a nominal depth of 150 m below surface.

The company says it continues receiving positive exploration drilling results on the project, which confirms the potential for a new openpit operation adjacent to the Syama processing complex.

Diamond drilling continues, with new intersections outside of the updated resource. Some recent intersections returned 20 m of gold grading 9.80 g/t from 133 m and 5 m of gold grading 30.03 g/t from 134 m.

Resolute’s focus has shifted to exploring for more sulphide close to the processing complex, given the strong performance of the sulphide processing circuit after a planned major shutdown occurred.

The company has been seeking as many oxide ounces as it could in recent years.

CEO Terry Holohan states that, assuming significant amounts of these resources convert to reserves, it will give the company a huge amount of flexibility on its current expansion plans, processing options and debottlenecking initiatives.

Resolute has started with a prefeasibility study into low capital expansion options to further expand the sulphide operations, which should be completed early in 2023. 

Additionally, the company started with a new low-level, high-definition heliborne aeromagnetic survey in July to improve on the historical wide-spaced aeromagnetic coverage.

The survey will cover the entire 85 km length of the Greenstone Belt held under licence in an effort to delineate more sulphide resources which are the long-term future of the mining operation.