Turaco Gold (TCG.AX) has released its maiden resource estimate for the Afema project in Ivory Coast. That initial resource contained 2.52 million ounces of gold in three separate deposits at an average grade of around 1.3-1.3 g/t gold thanks to two of the deposits with an average grade of 1.6 g/t gold and 2.0 g/t gold. About 60% of the total amount of ounces is hosted in the indicated resource category while the company remains very confident in further increasing the resource as it considers the maiden resource an interim calculation considering drilling is still ongoing. Additionally, the resource is based on just three of the exploration targets and there appears to be plenty of low hanging fruit to indeed further expand the resource. Earlier this week, the company announced thick intervals from the Woulo Woulo zone and these assays are obviously not included yet in the resource calculation.
The size of the initial resource is quite impressive as the company acquired the asset only five months ago. And not only is the company already sitting on a robust resource calculation, it has also already completed a few rounds of metallurgical test work with recovery rates ranging from 89.4% to 94.3% at Woulo Woulo, and 77-85% at the Jonction zone.
It will be interesting to see how many ounces the Afema project will ultimately contain as it looks like Turaco has already reached the critical mass required to consider a production decision. Also keep in mind the Afema project already has an active mining permit so once the critical mass will have been reached, it could be quite straightforward for Turaco to start thinking about developing the asset.
Disclosure: The author has no position in Turaco Gold. Please read the disclaimer.
