Toubani Resources (ASX: TRE) has revealed more high-grade gold results from its Kobada project in the West African Republic of Mali, with the new shallow oxide intersections set to be fed into the company’s impending mineral resource upgrade for the 2.4 million-ounce project.
The latest highlights from the final batch of resource definition assays show impressive oxide hits of 13m at 6.23 grams per tonne gold from 88m and an eye-watering 1m at 100g/t from 17m accompanied by a slightly deeper 7m segment going 3.06g/t from 37m. The drilling program that was carried out between February and May was designed to test key areas of near-surface, open-pittable oxide gold, with the key focus on upgrading and converting as much as possible of the existing resource from an inferred to an indicated category.
The completed set of returned assays from will now inform the mineral resource estimate, with the potential upgrade expected to form the building blocks for a new definitive feasibility study (DFS) scheduled for later this year. Management expects the DFS upgrade to add significantly to the previous study that was released more than three years ago.
We look forward to delivering this next milestone in our strategy as we move to demonstrate the Kobada Gold Project at an increased production scale and a competitive capital and operating cost structure. Toubani Resources chief executive officer Phil Russo
Russo described the completion of the resource definition drill program as a “key milestone” for the company.
The existing Kobada resource totals some 87 million tonnes at 0.84g/t gold for 2.4 million ounces. The deposit at the soft rock project contains predominantly oxide gold because of its deep weathering profile and it extends for more than 5km in length, with the existing shallow and well-drilled resource estimate defined within a planned 4.5km-long open pit.
The final suite of results cap off Toubani’s four-month, 10,000m-plus campaign of targeted reverse-circulation (RC) drilling. It threw out an encouraging list of high-grade gold intersections, highlighted by a 19m hit going 20.6g/t gold from 69m and 24m at 5.75g/t from 131m.
Additional thick intersections include a recent 57m slice grading 2.48g/t and 51m at 2.72g/t gold from 123m.
Mali is now Africa’s fourth-biggest gold producer, with increasing corporate action continuing to validate the high-value potential of projects in the western part of the country. And Mali’s output is only expected to increase as more operations come online.
The country is a hotspot for several major miners including Barrick Gold, which has gold mines at its 11 million-ounce Loulo project and the 5.1 million-ounce Gounkoto operation.
The continuous flow of solid gold results for Toubani, its impending mineral resource upgrade and more importantly, its looming DFS upgrade, is more than likely to see the $28 million market-capped company take on an entirely new complexion in the coming months.
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