AMN - MAURITANIA: New gold drilling phase at Tijirit

Algold Resources is planning a phase V drilling program at the Tijirit Gold Project in Mauritania. The program will focus on increasing resources at Eleonore as well as better defining the potential of Eleonore East and Salma zones.

At Eleonore, the program will target the down-dip and down-plunge extension of the high-grade gold zone.

As the company was recently granted a 12-month extension to complete the Tijirit project feasibility study, this provides ample opportunity for further exploration, including the new drilling campaign.

Since the acquisition of the properties in March 2016, Algold has conducted exploration consisting of data compilation, geological mapping, Landsat imagery acquisition and litho-structural analysis, detailed structural studies and 50,000 metres of drilling.

This led to completion of a NI 43-101 resource estimate in February 2018 which demonstrates, using a cut-off grade of 1.5 g/t gold and without pit constraints, that the high-grade Eleonore zone hosts 94,250 ounces of gold at an average grade of 4.08 g/t in the indicated category and 394,690 ounces of gold at an average grade of 4.07 g/t in the inferred category.

Further, the Lily and Sophie zones, using an in-pit cut-off of 0.4 g/t and 1.7 g/t under pits, includes measured and indicated resources of 75,200 ounces of gold at an average grade of 0.94 g/t and inferred resources of 254,100 ounces at an average grade of 1.06 g/t.

These resources were estimated from the surface to approximately 150 metres vertical depth and that the deposit remains open down dip and down plunge.

This estimate was followed up with a positive preliminary economic assessment, which served to reiterate Algold’s strong commitment to rapidly develop the Tijirit project.

Achievement of this milestone also contributed to further strengthen the strong relationship that Algold has developed with the Government of Mauritania by delivering, as stipulated, the technical and economic analyses pertaining to the development of the Tijirit deposit.

Algold’s 2019 Tijirit exploration program will focus on increasing the property’s resources base.

In order to further advance the development of the project, Algold embarked on a Phase IV 25,000-metre drilling program in the summer of 2018. Some 15,000 metres of the drilling were carried out within the optimised pit shell of the PEA, aimed at converting a fair portion of inferred resources into the indicated and measured category. 

This drilling program enabled the discovery of the near-surface Salma and Eleonore East high-grade zones, situated less than five kilometres from the Eleonore gold zone. Some 8,500 metres of drilling were conducted on this new area, which extends for over 10 kilometres along strike.

In late 2018, a soil geochemical survey in the Eleonore East area as well as rock chip sampling in an unexplored zone 3.5 kilometres south of Eleonore, were performed.

Encouraging results from 41 selected grab samples taken from quartz veins, similar to the type of mineralisation observed at Eleonore, returned assays values averaging 7.22 g/t with a median value of 0.15 and a range going from 0.004 to 96.5 g/t from gold-bearing quartz veins.

These results continue to demonstrate the fertility of the Tijirit greenstone belt and its potential for further high-grade gold discoveries within Algold’s 300-square kilometre mining licence.

The soil geochemical survey allowed for definition of several new large gold anomalies. These anomalies will be drill tested in order to develop a strong resource base at Eleonore East and Salma.

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