KEFI Gold and Copper (KEFI.L), a British exploration company active in Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia, has released and updated resource estimate for its Hawiah Copper-Gold project in Saudi Arabia. The total indicated resource is now 10.9 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.96% copper, 0.86% zinc, 0.64 g/t gold and 9.98 g/t silver while there also is an additional inferred resource containing 14 million tonnes at 0.85% copper, 0.83% zinc, 0.61 g/t gold and 9.67 g/t silver. The majority of the resource is an underground resource, as you can see in the image below.
That being said, the open pit resource containing 8.4 million tonnes across all categories still contains about 172 million pounds of copper, 134 million pounds of zinc, 200,000 ounces gold and 2.7 million ounces silver. Depending on the strip ratio, this could be a valuable starting point. The total resource now contains almost 500 million pounds of copper, in excess of 450 million pounds of zinc, just under half a million ounces of gold and 7.8 million ounces of silver, emphasizing the importance of the resource expansion. The tonnage and the grade of all metals (except for the silver values) has increased compared to the 2020 resource estimate.
Keep in mind the Hawiah project is held in a joint venture with KEFI owning a stake of 31.2%.
Disclosure: The author has no position in Kefi Gold and Copper. Please read our disclaimer.
