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Asante Gold (CSE: ASE) announced on Monday an extension to the mineral resource estimate for the Grasshopper pit development in Ghana.
Asante’s main asset is the Bibiani open pit mine, which reached commercial production around this time last year. The operation is fully permitted with available mining and processing infrastructure on-site, including a newly refurbished 3 million tonne per annum process plant.
The Grasshopper pit is part of the Bibiani mining lease and is located less than 2 km north of the Bibiani processing plant. Mining began at the Grasshopper pit in the second quarter of 2023.
The MRE is supported by 10,000 metres of historical drilling as well as 8,800 metres of recent drilling. The drilling results, according to Asante, confirm the consistency of low-grade high tonnage mineralization mainly within the oxide transition material at the Grasshopper pit.
Constrained indicated resources amounted to 1.88 million tonnes averaging 1.04 grams per tonne for 56,500 oz. of contained gold, within an optimal pit shell of $1,850/oz. gold price. A majority of the mineralized material is within the oxide transition zone and is expected to yield gold recovery above 90%.
“The results from our accelerated resource definition drilling are highly encouraging and underscore the remarkable consistency of the high tonnage mineralization within the oxide transition material. With a constrained indicated resource of 56,500 oz. of gold at 1.04 g/t within an optimized pit shell, we are poised to unlock substantial value from the Grasshopper pit,”
“The results from our accelerated resource definition drilling are highly encouraging and underscore the remarkable consistency of the high tonnage mineralization within the oxide transition material. With a constrained indicated resource of 56,500 oz. of gold at 1.04 g/t within an optimized pit shell, we are poised to unlock substantial value from the Grasshopper pit,” CEO Dave Anthony said in a news release.
The company said there are multiple shoots of mineralization open along strike and down plunge beyond the pit shell. This, according to Anthony, highlights the promising opportunities for sustained expansion and underscores the company’s long-term commitment to maximizing the value of this asset.
Further drilling is planned with potential to grow the mineral resource beyond the current pit shell.
Shares of Asante Gold were up nearly 5.0% by noon EDT, giving the Vancouver-headquartered miner a market capitalization of C$658.5 million ($481.7m).
