Sissingué and Yaouré projects yield encouraging exploration results

Its Sissingué gold mining operation started commercial production on 1 April 2018 and the company is now reportedly aiming to extend the currently estimated five-year life of the mine by identifying additional mineral resources that can be processed at Sissingué.

Recent exploration drilling has identified open ended gold mineralisation extending over 200 m of strike length at the Zanikan prospect, south of Sissingué, and over 300 m of strike length at the Fimbiasso South prospect on the nearby Mahalé exploration licence.

Both prospects are located within trucking distance of the recently commissioned Sissingué processing facility. Yaouré is a development stage project and will become Perseus’s third gold mine when developed. A positive definitive feasibility study (DFS) was completed in October 2017 and subject to financing and full permitting, mine development is expected to start early in 2019.

Perseus has completed the drilling of targets identified during the Yaouré DFS as having potential to increase mineral resources, Ore Reserves and the currently estimated eight and a half year mine life for the project. Publication of an updated mineral resource estimate is now expected in early October 2018, subject to the receipt of all outstanding assay results.

Sissingué exploration permit - Zanikan

At Zanikan, 20 km south of the Sissingué gold mining operation, Perseus has completed 30 air core (AC) drill holes for 1983 m to cover an area of strong gold-in-soil anomalism and extensive artisanal mining of gold mineralised quartz stockworks. This recent AC drilling was designed to undercut previous rotary air blast (RAB) drilling and investigate the stockwork mineralisation at greater depths.

The results seem to indicate multiple steeply west-dipping mineralised structures over an open ended 200 m strike length. Perseus is planning further AC and reverse circulation (RC) drilling to infill, extend and undercut the coverage between and along strike from the recent drilling at the conclusion of the current wet season.

40 km southwest of Sissingué at Mahalé 195 AC drill holes totalling 5586 m were drilled, concentrating on the southern section of the Fimbiasso granite where 2017 RAB hole MHRB057 intersected 12 m @ 1.67 g/t Au. Results from this programme were partially reported in Perseus’s June 2018 Quarter Report released to the ASX on 13 July 2018.

Geological interpretation suggests mineralisation identified at Fimbiasso South is similar to that found at the Fimbiasso East and West deposits (previously Bélé East and West), which have a combined JORC Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate of 1.9 million t at 2.0 g/t gold for 130 000 oz gold. Recent drilling has confirmed gold mineralisation over at least 300 m which remains open along strike in both directions, with a possible subparallel zone approximately 100 m to the south. Perseus is to undertake additional AC and RC drilling to infill, extend and undercut the coverage between and along strike from the recent drilling following the end of the current wet season.

Yaouré exploration permit

The Yaouré DFS identified targets with potential to increase the Yaouré Project’s Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves. By the end of July 2018, Perseus completed the first stage of drilling, targeting high priority targets. The programme included 47 holes for 4597 m of RC drilling and 3849m of core drilling at CMA, 54 holes for 4896 m of RC drilling at Yaouré pit south and 28 holes for 1930m of RC drilling at Y2 South.

Perseus Managing Director and CEO, Jeff Quartermaine, said: “We are certainly encouraged by the recent exploration results at Zanikan and Fimbiasso South and are planning further work to follow these results up as soon as weather permits. An increase in the mine life of Sissingué through the addition of further mineral resources to the mine’s inventory will materially add to the value of this asset and based on the results achieved to date, this now appears achievable.”

“Our drilling at Yaouré has also produced strong results and updating Yaouré’s Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve estimates is our next priority as this should further improve the already attractive economics of developing this outstanding project into our third gold mine and will enhance the project’s appeal to prospective financiers.”

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/exploration-development/15082018/sissingu-and-yaour-projects-yield-encouraging-exploration-results/