Endeavour rallies on new Burkina gold estimate
Endeavour Mining Corp. [EDV-TSX; EDVMF-OTCQX] on Thursday November 15 announced a significant maiden resource estimate for the previously announced Kari Pump discovery at its flagship Houndé Mine in Burkina Faso, West Africa.
Kari Pump’s one million ounce maiden indicated resource increases the measured and indicated resource at Houndé by 40%, the company said in a press release. The indicated resource is 11.3 million tonnes at 2.71 g/t gold or 987,000 ounces. On top of that is an inferred resource of 200,000 tonnes at 2.21 g/t gold or 20,000 ounces.
This indicated grade compares favourably to Houndé’s indicated grade of 2.05 g/t gold. Kari Pump is amenable to open pit mining as mineralization begins at surface. The deposit is located only 7 km west of the processing plant. It is one of three high-grade discoveries made in the large Kari gold in soil anomaly which covers an area spanning 6 by 2.5 km.
A second 200,000-metre drilling program will start before the end of this year, focused on extending the mineralization at Kari Pump and delineating a maiden resource for Kari West and Kari Center.
Endeavour shares rallied on the news, rising 1.91% or 32 cents to $17.60. The 52-week range is $26.86 and $17.20.
Endeavour Mining has five mines in West Africa. Its Burkina Faso assets include the Houndé gold mine, which the company said is positioned to be its flagship low cost mine. The company is forecasting average production at Houndé of 235,000 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of US$610/oz.
The Karma Mine in north-central Burkina Faso, near the city of Ouahigouya, reached the commercial production stage in October 2016, and produced 97,982 ounces in 2017.
The company is forecasting total gold production of up to 670,000-720,000 ounces this year at an all-in sustaining cost of US$840-890/oz.
Burkina is a landlocked nation located in West Africa. It covers an area of roughly 274,000 km2 and has an estimated population of more than 16 million. The country has a stable political setting with a pro-mining and foreign investment stance.
Burkina has nine operating gold mines and a number of advanced stage projects that are moving towards production.
It is viewed as having excellent geological potential as the Greenstone Belt that hosts all of the major deposits in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire continue northward into Burkina Faso. Gold is mainly mined from Proterozoic rocks and alluvial/eluvial deposits.
It is a geological setting that is thought to be similar to the prolific Precambrian gold belts of eastern Canada and other parts of the world. However Burkina remains relatively unexplored, in comparison to neighbouring Ghana and Mali, both of which host world class gold mines in the same belts of Birmian rocks.