Africa-focused Azumah Resources has kicked off the new year with more high grade gold hits extending mineralisation at the Kunche deposit of its flagship Wa project in Ghana, by up to 75m deeper to nearly 200m below surface.
Notable results from its ongoing drilling campaign include a whopping 1m grading 140.49 grams per tonne gold, or about 4 ounces per tonne gold, from 208m down-hole and 5m @ 6.02g/t gold from 214m in separate holes on drill sections 75m apart.
Adding interest, the second intersection is about 75m below the stunning 44m hit grading 5.37g/t gold from 99m that the company intersected in May last year.
Azumah said the most recent drilling has confirmed that the consistent mineralisation of the Kunche deposit also extends to depth, which is the case with most structurally controlled, orogenic-style gold deposits in the region.
The Kunche system currently remains open at depth.
Management said that while the scope of the Feasibility Study currently underway is based on the mining of a series of proposed open pits, the recent results have continued to build the case for an underground mining operation below one or more of the pits.
While further drilling and evaluation is required to confirm the potential, underground mining would add considerable value to the overall project.
Follow-up drilling is also underway at the Bepkong deposit to test recent depth extensions located there.
In December last year, the company’s first deep hole at Bepkong East hit an amazing 93m drill intersection grading 2.33g/t gold from 261m down-hole that included two high grade intersections of 9.9m @ 8.42g/t gold from 295m and 2.16m @ 21.17g/t gold from 303m.
Further drilling at Bepkong East added more fuel to the fire with high grade hits of 5m @ 6.01g/t gold from 417m and 35m @ 4.7g/t gold from 148m including 11m @ 13.45g/t gold in the Eastern lode.
Managing Director Stephen Stone said: “This is a tremendous start to 2019 with our 40,000 metre, multi-objective drilling campaign still having a long way to go.”
“Our much-anticipated update on the progress of the Feasibility Study and ore reserves is just weeks away and we are very confident this will be a defining year for the Wa Gold Project and Azumah’s shareholders.”
The Wa project currently has a global JORC compliant mineral resource of 2.5 million ounces of gold within a 49.2 million tonne ore body grading 1.6g/t gold.
This includes an ore reserve of 624,000 ounces just above the magical 2g/t gold threshold.
Joint venture partner Ibaera Capital is funding and managing the $4m, 40,000m drilling campaign as part of a broader $17m farm-in to earn a 47.5% interest in the Wa gold project tenements.
Azumah’s continued successes with its ongoing drilling campaigns in Ghana, provide further encouragement for the future economic potential of the already attractive Wa gold project.
By Matt Birney
