MINING | Tietto Minerals
TIETTO MINERALS A steady stream of progress at the Abujar gold project in Côte d’Ivoire
African Business Network
MINING | Tietto Minerals
In April 2019, ASX-listed explorer Tietto Minerals announced it had grown its resource at the Abujar gold project in Côte d’Ivoire by 146% to 1.73 million ounces (Moz), including a high grade core of 1.06 Moz at 2.1 g/t Au. This substantial resource upgrade is the latest major success achieved by the company at its flagship West African project since going public in January 2018. “The new estimation of 1.73 Moz is a substantial increase over our previous resource,” says managing director Caigen Wang. “The update gives the market and our investors increased confidence that the project has further resource growth upside, because only a small portion of our overall 70 km mineralised structure has been tested.” The Abujar project is comprised of three contiguous tenements totalling 1,114 km² in central Western Côte d’Ivoire (Figure 2), and it remains largely underexplored as attested to by Wang, with 90% of the 70 km long shear zone still to be tested by Tietto.
A significant resource upgrade The April resource upgrade was based on 26,000 metres of successful reverse
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Figure 1: Tietto’s exploration camp at the Abujar project site
Figure 2 : Location of Abujar Gold Project in Côte d’Ivoire and JORC resources defined at the Abujar project
MINING | Tietto Minerals
Figure 3: Plan view of Abujar Gludehi (AG) deposit circulation (RC) drilling and diamond drilling
The AG deposit currently has a JORC 2012
(DD) on the middle tenement across two
resource of 26.4 million tonnes (Mt) at 1.6 g/t
areas: the Abujar-Gludehi (AG) and Abujar-
for 1.38 Moz, having been extended along
Pischon-Golikro (APG) deposits.
strike, down dip and towards depth in the previous drilling campaign.
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Figure 4: Plan view of Abujar Gludehi (AG) deposit In addition, around 85% of the AG Resource is defined within 1.4 km of strike along AG line 15-29, which has been estimated to contain 15.7 Mt at a higher grade of 2.1 g/t for 1.06 Moz (Figure 3 and Figure 4). Meanwhile, the APG deposit is located just 5 km South of the AG deposit and the resource is estimated to be 11.2 Mt at 1.0 g/t for 0.35 Moz. “In terms of mineralisation structures, we are rapidly expanding the resource along strike and down dip along this major shear corridor. At the same time, the tenor and width of
Figure 5: Diamond drill rig owned by Tietto operating at Abujar project site
drilling intercepts give us encouragement that Abujar is on the way towards becoming a large gold mining operation.�
MINING | Tietto Minerals
Year-end drilling campaign Tietto will now look to complete a 30,000
fresh rock samples exposed by large scale artisanal workings returned one grade of 50.8 g/t Au in an elevated gold zone.
metres combined DD and RC/AC drilling campaign during the rest of the year, using
Tietto’s managing director is very encouraged
its own company-owned rigs (Figure 5), ahead by the new discovery at the Abujar-Potoco of an additional resource upgrade before the
Prospect (APP) see Figure 2 for location,
end of 2019.
approximately 900 metres East of the Abujar shear, and the company has mobilised one
The drilling will focus primarily on extending
of its three DD rigs to drill below the artisanal
the AG deposit along strike and to a vertical
pit at Potoco.
depth of 350 metres, along with the APG very shallow depths, averaging less than 120
Côte d’Ivoire’s ASM industry
metres.
Workings (Figure 6) left behind by artisanal
deposit which to date has only been drilled to
miners across the tenement areas at Abujar In July the company announced the discovery
have previously helped Tietto identify where
of an entirely new gold-mineralised shear
mineralisation was taking place at the project,
zone parallel to the Abujar Resource, after
with artisanal and small scale mining (ASM)
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Figure 6: Workings left by previous artisanal miners within Abujar project areas continuing to resemble a major feature of the
not allowed to apply for exploration licences.
mining industry in Côte d’Ivoire.
Instead they are designated for small scale alluvial mining or ASM.”
Recognising the ongoing presence of the ASM sector and its contribution to livelihoods in
The establishment of specific areas for
rural communities, the Ivorian Government
small scale miners removed from licenced
has taken steps to ensuring the practise
exploration zones has gone some way
can take place side-by-side with the nascent
to alleviating tensions between the two
industrial scale mining industry.
groups, while also paving the way for the formalisation of the ASM sector.
“First of all, illegal miners are not allowed to undertake any mining activities on the
Formalisation is a vital process for ASM in
tenement licences of exploration companies,”
order to reduce environmental impact and
explains Wang.
health and safety risks to those engaged in the sector, of which there were 100,000
“At the same time, the government has set
people working directly on ASM in Côte
up a number of small scale mining districts
d’Ivoire, according to estimates from 2016.
where we as industrial mining companies are
MINING | Tietto Minerals
Developing an attractive mining jurisdiction
The code set a goal of developing the most attractive mining code in West Africa, which would dovetail with the underexplored
Along with beginning to regulate small scale
nature of Côte d’Ivoire’s position extending
mining activity across the country, the Ivorian
across 34% of the highly mineralised Birimian
Government and the Ministry of Mines has
Greenstone Belt to create an attractive
made it a vital priority to support exploration
proposition for investors into the sector.
and mining companies investing into the sector, particularly since the introduction of
“Côte d’Ivoire has created very good fiscal
the 2014 Mining Code.
regimes for investment in the gold sector. They have a five-year tax-free holiday starting from commercial production. They have
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reasonably low corporate tax after that and
“From our own experience, the government
their royalties regime is also attractive,” Wang
quickly granted us an exploration licence in
highlights.
2014 and has worked closely with us ever since to ensure the project runs smoothly.
The impact of the investment-friendly mining code has been tangible in Côte d’Ivoire’s gold
“From the local communities to local and
sector, with production growing from 630,000
central government, they are all very
oz per year to 900,000 oz per year between
comfortable with what we are doing and each
2014 and 2018. This 40% increase in just
group has suggested we put in an application
four years can be directly attributed to the
for a mining licence as soon as we can.”
enabling environment provided by the fiscal regimes of the new code.
MINING | Tietto Minerals
“The resource update gives our investors increased confidence that the project has further growth upside, because only a small portion of our overall 70 km mineralised structure has been tested� Caigen Wang, managing director Tietto Minerals
African Business Network
Strategic goals
feasibility studies for the Abujar project and
In June, Tietto’s board of directors held
build the mine.
a strategic planning meeting which laid out several objectives for the year-end
“Since we started the project in 2014,
and beyond. First, the additional resource
everything has moved smoothly. We don’t
update is slated for around November
see any significant difficulties or challenges
2019. Secondly, Tietto will then seek to
ahead of us in the progression of the project
advance scoping studies, followed by a PFS
or the eventual development of the mine.
commencing in first half 2020. “We are very excited about the progress Given the recent upward movement in the
we have been making and we fully expect
gold price, now is a good time to be a gold
to deliver on our short-term and long-term
producer and Wang believes it is only a
targets,” he concludes.
matter of time before Tietto can complete its
ASX:TIE
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