Tietto Minerals hits more high-grade gold in West Africa
Latest drilling at Abujar has returned 1m at 180.86g/t gold from 57m.
Tietto Minerals (ASX: TIE) has reported further high-grade gold hits in a second batch of infill drilling results from its Abujar-Gludehi deposit in Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa.
The best intersection returned this round was 16m at 17.6 grams per tonne gold from 69m, including 2m at 126.57g/t gold. This strong result exceeds the first assay batch highlights which were led by 3m at 35.65g/t, including 1m at 98.03g/t gold.
The Abujar-Gludehi deposit currently has an indicated resource estimate of 35 million tonnes at 1.5g/t gold for 1.65 million ounces and lies within Tietto’s larger 3.35Moz Abujar gold project.
The company is undertaking an ongoing 30,000m infill diamond drilling program that aims to convert a portion of the deposit’s indicated resources to measured, targeting the first two years of Abujar’s gold production.
This second round of assays comprised drill core from 12 holes for 2,127.5m. Tietto is awaiting assays for a further 77 holes drilled for 14,074m and the remaining 10,000m of infill drilling is expected to be completed early in the fourth quarter.
High-grade results de-risk open pit mining
Other significant intercepts from the second batch of assays comprised: 18m at 3.3g/t from 60m, including 7m at 6.23g/t; 12m at 2.07g/t from 18m, including 4m at 4.42g/t; 4m at 6.02g/t from 70m; 4m at 6.11g/t from 101m; and 11m at 1.98g/t from 79m, including 4m at 4.68g/t gold.
Tietto managing director Dr Caigen Wang said the latest results further de-risk open pit mining at Abujar and he is anticipating more high grades from the outstanding assays and remainder of drilling.
“The results from the infill drilling program will be incorporated into the next resource model update currently slated for the end of the 2021 fourth quarter,” Dr Wang said.
Definitive feasibility study progress
He added that work on the definitive feasibility study is progressing with delivery of key findings expected by the end of the September quarter.
“Mine engineers have incorporated the recently updated resource model from July 2021 into mine optimisation, detailed design and scheduling in preparation of what we expect will be a material update of the Abujar ore reserves.”
Tietto is targeting first gold from the Abujar project in the fourth quarter of 2022.