West African Resources unearths 132g/t gold during drilling at Sanbrado

Advanced gold explorer West African Resources (ASX: WAF) has unearthed up to 132 grams per tonne gold during reserve definition drilling at its Sanbrado project in Burkina Faso.

Drilling a the M1 South deposit pulled up several gold intersections including 6.5m at 61.8g/t gold from 258.5m, with the 132g/t gold hit within a 3m interval.

Other notable intersections were 1m at 85.8g/t gold from 164m and 3.5m at 41g/t gold from 175m.

Meanwhile, drilling at the M5 deposit also struck gold, but at lower grades than M1 South.

The best result from M5 was 14m at 12g/t gold from 510m, including 1m at 49.9g/t.

Results will be incorporated into an optimised feasibility study, which is due for delivery before the end of the current quarter.

West African managing director Richard Hyde said the study would include reserve updates and increased plant throughput for higher annual gold production than previously outlined.

Advancing Sanbrado

In the initial definitive feasibility study that was released in June last year, pre-production costs were estimated at US$185 million to build a 11-year mine, with production of 211,000 ounces of gold annually over the first five years.

The project has reserves of 20.4 million tonnes at 2.4g/t gold for 1.6Moz of the precious metal.

Although an optimised feasibility study is underway, West African reported in December last year it was fully-funded through to first gold production at Sanbrado.

The company was approved for a US$200 million finance facility with Taurus Funds Management Pty Ltd.

Additionally, West African completed a $43.2 million placement.

Voluntary TSXV de-listing

As part of West African’s near-term production and cost conservation strategy, the company announced its intention to de-list from the TSXV citing several reasons for the decision.

According to West African, 85% of its shares were traded on the ASX during the previous 12 months, with daily average share trading volumes over the last six months on the ASX hitting 500,000 compared to 90,000 on the TSX.

Additionally, only 9.5% of West African’s shares are held on the Canadian register and the company has decided it cannot continue to justify the costs associated with maintaining the TSXV listing.

West African’s share price was down 3.5% to $0.275 soon after market open.