Canadian precious metals mining company Fortuna Silver Mines is progressing infill drilling at the Sunbird deposit, at its Séguéla gold project, in Côte d'Ivoire, with the aim to increase resource confidence.
To date, 30 holes have been drilled in the first 4 560 m completed as part of a 9 500 m programme.
"The first batch of results [have returned] shallow high-grade intersections from modelled low-grade areas from within the pit optimisation shell, including highlights such as 10.6 g/t gold over a true width of 21.7 m in drill hole SGRC1572 and 14.9 g/t gold over a true width of 14 m from drill hole SGRC1570.
"In addition to the initial infill results, extension drilling to test the northern strike beyond the pit shell has been successful in intersecting additional high-grade results such as 12 g/t gold over a true width of 5.6 m in drill hole SGRC1566 and 6.6 g/t gold over a true width of 6.3 m in drill hole SGRC1567," Fortuna senior VP of exploration Paul Weedon points out.
Drilling is scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of this year, ahead of further optimisation work and integration into the life-of-mine (LoM) plan.
Further drilling to test the depth potential of the high-grade shoots previously identified plunging to the south is planned for the second half of the year.
Weedon notes that the focus at Sunbird is on upgrading its resource confidence, with the ultimate intention of conversion to mineral reserves to expand Séguéla's current 1.1-million ounces of gold reserves and nine-year LoM.
Fortuna owns four operating mines in Argentina, Mexico, Peru and Burkina Faso and is developing the Séguéla project.