Resolute Mining has announced a 40% increase in the gold resource at its Tabakoroni gold project, in Mali, saying it confirms the potential for a new openpit or underground gold mine.

The updated mineral resource estimate (MRE) from ongoing exploration at the Tabakoroni main shear zone revealed a global measured and indicated mineral resource estimate of 9.2-million tonnes at 4.4 g/t gold for 1.3-million ounces of gold, the company notes.

This was up from the previously reported MRE of 6.9-million tonnes at 4.3 g/t gold for 0.96-million ounces of gold.

Resolute previously published the maiden underground resource at Tabakoroni in April 2019, with mineral resource updates reported in 2020 and 2021. These estimates covered the Tabakoroni main shear zone (TMSZ) and excluded the splay area, which continues to be reported separately.

Diamond drilling continued throughout 2021, focusing on outlining and expanding the coherent high-grade lens of mineralisation located underneath the Tabakoroni South oxide pit. The first intersections in this zone were reported on October 14, 2020, with drilling programs since that time focusing on fully exploring this new zone.

Mineral resources for the southern high-grade zone were classified as inferred in the January 2021 MRE announcement. Therefore, a major focus for drilling during 2021 was to upgrade this area of the mineral resource to the indicated category, Resolute explained.

An updated MRE for the TMSZ was completed in December last year using wireframe constrained ordinary kriged methodology, which was the same as previous estimates.

The infill and expansion drilling undertaken in 2021 resulted in the majority of the southern high-grade zone being upgraded to the indicated category.

Resource diamond drilling at 50 m centre density in the southern high-grade zone was achieved last year, enabling the conversion of the majority of the previously classified inferred resource, Resolute says.

The company says it used the principals of reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction to restrict the global mineral resource by using both an openpit optimisation and a stope shape optimisation for material below the openpit shell.

Both optimisations were completed at a resource gold price of $2 000/oz, using mining and processing parameters likely to be encountered during eventual extraction of the material – such as the most likely mining methods and approximate mining and metallurgical parameters.

Resolute said the mineralisation at Tabakoroni remained open both along strike and at depth, and that continued exploration success was expected to expand mineral resources further.

“The Tabakoroni deposit is only drilled to shallow depths, to date, and has significant potential to grow at depth and along strike to the north and south,” the company states.

Drilling programmes to be undertaken this year will focus on three areas – extensions of the mineralised zone south of TARD779; testing the depth extents of the high-grade zone under the South Pit; and testing the northern plunge of the mineralisation underneath the North Pit.