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Algold Tijirit options multiply

Francois Auclair is facing a serious challenge his peers would envy.

MiningNews.Net
Algold Tijirit options multiply

Algold’s CEO is struggling to draw the boundaries for drilling at Tijirit in Mauritania’s north-west as Algold moves into the project’s feasibility study phase. Auclair says the potential is enormous and Algold has quickly evolved to a developer with significant exploration upside. “Every time we’re turning a rock along several defined structures – Eleonore, Lily and Sophie and Salma – we find gold. It’s a brand new discovery, which further opens up the development potential,” he says.

Algold acquired Tijirit in early 2016 and wasted no time publishing a maiden resource within six months of the deal from work compiled by previous operators. Then, after less than nine months of exploration and 20,000m of drilling, Algold defined three development zones including Eleonore, Sophie, and Lilly and tripled its estimated inferred resource to 600,000oz at 2.3g/t gold, including nearly 360,000oz grading more than 4.2g/t at a 1.5g/t cut-off at Eleonore.

Auclair says this period was not just about adding ounces at surface, but also about “understanding Tijirit’s uniqueness and rich geology” given its proximity to the 15Moz Tasiast deposit (25km north-east of Tijirit). He says drilling results have continued to surprise and exceed expectations. Tijirit’s Eleonore is completely different from Tasiast and continues to grow.

“Our challenge is constraining the resource for the feasibility study in the context of a resource that continues to grow. Do we stop at 1 million ounces, 1.5Moz, or 2Moz, etc? We continue to hit high-grade mineralisation along strike and at depth, which creates a dilemma for us on the cut-off date for the drilling,” Auclair says.

Algold anticipates a new resource estimate in the first half of 2018, as it works toward completing a FS by the end of 2018 at the request of the Government of Mauritania, which recently granted Algold a 30-year mining lease. Auclair says the government has a near-term goal of seeing a new producing gold mine in Mauritania.

In addition, the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Mauritania has already accepted Algold’s environmental impact study (EIS) at the beginning of 2017, and Algold has completed metallurgical testwork, with initial analysis showing 96% recovery of gold by gravity and cyanidation.

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 “Very few junior explorers have gone this far, this fast, with such strong government support, including financing from Mauritanian business groups.  This mitigates any perceived development risk and ensures an accelerated development in Mauritania” Auclair says.

In early 2017, Algold embarked on a new 30,000m (Phase III) drilling program, including 6,500m of diamond and 23,500m of RC. The aggressive campaign included infill holes as well as drilling for extensions of mineralisation below 100m, and along strike.

“Tasiast and Tijirit are situated in the Archean Reguibat Shield, but the geological settings and the mineralisation style are both different,” says Auclair, who was the general manager at Tasiast from 2004 to 2007 before Kinross Gold paid US$7.1 billion for Red Back Mining in 2010.

Tasiast has two types of mineralisation – BIF-hosted and shear-hosted gold deposits. 

Algold’s Eleonore zone, the core focus, is a quartz stockwork hosted in a brittle-ductile type deformation zone within a mafic volcanic package. Eleonore now extends over 3.5km and is within two faults. Lily and Sophie Zones consist of a mix of BIF hosted gold deposit and a shear hosted gold deposit and are Tasiast look-alikes. The Salma Zone was recently discovered and is situated at the contact between the volcanic and a syntectonic granite (contact), about 3km east of Eleonore.

Algold believes Salma holds “tremendous high-grade potential over 1.55km strike”, says Auclair. 

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Algold has identified the Eleonore deformation zone as a major deep-seated structure, which extends 35km and is well-defined by satellite imagery, airborne magnetometer, and mapping. Structural mineralised outcrops at surface corroborate the enormity and scale of this high-grade discovery.

“This structure crosses the entire mine lease over its entire length,” says Auclair. 

“This is a whole new ball game, with world-class open pit, high-grade potential.

“We initially thought the resource would be constrained to the footprint of the geochem anomalies identified by our predecessors. But we subsequently discovered gold mineralisation and visible gold along strike at Eleonore in the drill holes outside the original geochem signature.

“We are having similar success at depth, with the deepest intersections at Eleonore now below 150m vertical depth, indicating high-grade mineralisation that underpins Tijirit’s previous resource statement, which was established at approximately 100m depth. Similar mineralisation is being intersected down dip.

“We initiated Phase III drilling in February this year to develop the resource from 100-200m vertical depth, and to follow-up along strike and down plunge on some of the best intersections.

“The next resource statement will include 0-200m vertical depth.

“The grade is always the same when we hit the smoky quartz vein – what we call the jewellery box -where we’ve seen up to 40g/t over 6-8m along that imprint. The drilling confirms that these veins have a steep plunge to the north-east. We are following these rich veins along this [Eleonore] structure.”

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Algold is targeting 1Moz to start at Eleonore at about 4g/t, and is targeting additional ounces of shallow mineralisation at 1.5g/t at Sophie-Lilly.

“We will also pursue the high-grade Salma granite-contact discovery, which was not included in the most recent NI 43-101. Salma is another game changer with drilling planned to start before the end of the year. Salma has yielded an average 14g/t-plus from surface samples,” says Auclair.

“We believe the closest analogue to Eleonore is the Dome mine at the Timmins camp in Canada.  Eleonore displays similar mafic volcanic rocks that were put under very high strain, broken open, and in-filled with quartz, whit little sulphide associated to the gold mineralisation.”

Auclair says Algold continues to deliver results and quickly de-risk itself, adding a high-grade gold resource at Eleonore and securing a new strategic local investor in Wafa Mining & Petroleum, as well as a 30-year mining permit.

The company has some critical milestones ahead with “exploration success and upcoming drilling results real ‘X-factors’”.

“The potential for discovery is immense,” Auclair says. “I believe the chances of us ending up with a multi-million-ounce high grade gold deposit are great because there’s so much potential and so little that is known.

“An openpit mine of approximately 4g/t gold and 1-2Moz to start at Tijirit is the goal. That’s our aim – our vision. There is tremendous potential to grow the resources along that corridor; higher grade like at Salma, or lower like Sophie-Lilly.

“This is the beauty of Tijirit. As we all know, grade is king.”

Algold Resources – at a glance

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HEAD OFFICE: 1320 Graham Blvd. #132, VMR, Qc, Canada, H3P 3C8

Telephone: 1-514-747-4653

Email: info@algold.com

Web: www.algold.com

DIRECTORS: Benoit La Salle, John Hick, Francois Auclair, Salma Seetaroo, Mary Batoff, Mario Caron, Darin Milmeister, Yves Grou

QUOTED SHARES ON ISSUE: 194.6m

MARKET CAP (at August 30, 2017): C$38.9 million

MAJOR SHAREHOLDERS: Management, JP Morgan UK, Delaware Street Capital, RBIM.

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