Aurum Resources has taken a key step towards the establishment of an open pit mining operation at its Boundiali project in Côte d’Ivoire following the appointment of local specialist consultancy firm Envitech to undertake an environmental and social impact study of the venture.
The study will cover five deposits within the company’s BD, BM and BST (Nyangboue) licences which make up three of the company’s four tenement areas at Boundiali which enclose a total of 1037 square kilometres.
Plant site selection remains to be selected as part of the ongoing technical feasibility study.
Envitech has a successful track record in delivering impact assessment reports in the country having previously worked with Tietto Minerals, when it developed the 3.8 million ounce Abujar gold project in Côte d’Ivoire in 2020.
Envitech’s environmental and social study over Tietto’s Abujar gold project was a major contributing factor in the eventual granting of a mining exploitation licence for Tietto.
In December last year, Aurum delivered its maiden JORC combined compliant mineral resource estimate of 50.9 million tonnes at a grade of 1g/t gold for 1.59 million ounces of gold at its Boundiali gold project.
The current drill targets which contributed to that resource are designated BD-T1 and T2, BM-T1 and T3 and also include the Nyangboue deposit on Aurum’s southernmost BST tenement.
The resource estimate is based on data from 480 drillholes and almost 74,000m of drilling, with infill and/or extension drilling continuing.
Aurum is also advancing its separate 0.87 million ounce Napié gold project, 100km southeast of Boundiali and has also identified other prospects in its Boundiali tenement area which remain to be explored.
The Boundiali projects covers the vastly under-explored southern extension of the prospective Boundiali greenstone belt, where a deformed synclinal greenstone belt traverses finer-grained basin sediments, while clastic rocks lie to the west in contact with a granitic margin.
Envitech will kick off its field appraisal in April and will complement Aurum’s team of specialist consultancies it has selected to deliver the company’s Boundiali pre-feasibility study which the company plans to complete by the end of the year.
Aurum is undertaking ongoing gold-focussed exploration and development while simultaneously building its resources, advancing its technical and economic feasibility studies and the required permitting work for Boundiali.
The company aims to have all of its mining exploitation permits in hand when it completes its definitive feasibility study, currently slated to be around mid-2026.
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By Doug Bright
