KEFI Gold and Copper plc (LON:KEFI), the gold and copper exploration and development company with projects in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has announced that exploration and development studies at the KEFI-operated Gold & Minerals Limited Hawiah Copper-Gold Project and the contiguous Al Godeyer Exploration Licences in Saudi Arabia continue to make rapid progress. The development in due course of G&M’s rapidly growing projects is intended to be funded as to c.25% by the G&M shareholders (KEFI 30% and ARTAR 70%) and c.75% by project debt-funding. G&M’s projects look likely to be developed following construction of the Company’s Tulu Kapi Gold Project in Ethiopia, the full launch of which is targeted by mid-2022.
Hawiah
Exploration drilling and trenching at Hawiah has continued following the substantial diamond drilling programmes completed during 2021 and the upgraded Hawiah Mineral Resource Estimate (“MRE”) announced on 6 January 2022. Current work streams are focussed on providing data for the Hawiah Preliminary Feasibility Study (“PFS”) and include:
· A 3,700m reverse-circulation (“RC”) drilling programme which commenced in late January 2022 aimed at upgrading and expanding the oxide portion of the Hawiah MRE to an Indicated Resource category for open pit mine planning;
· A now completed, targeted trenching programme across the Camp and Crossroad Lodes, which enabled the collection of bulk samples of the oxide material which have been dispatched for analysis;
· Further metallurgical test work on the sulphide mineralisation to determine the preferred flowsheets to recover the copper concentrates and zinc concentrates, as well as the gold and silver;
· A recently commenced 1,800m geotechnical diamond drilling (“DD”) programme; and
· A 1,350m hydrogeological drilling and pump testing programme which is scheduled to start in early March.
Al Godeyer
The two Al Godeyer Exploration Licences (“EL”) granted in December 2021 are located immediately west of the Hawiah EL and contains historically recognised and newly identified gossans that crop-out over a 2km strike. These are considered to be the weathered surface expression of a Volcanic Massive Sulphide (“VMS”) deposit, a direct geological analogue of the Hawiah deposit. Initial exploration has focussed on establishing continuity of the main gossans and work in the first two months includes:
· Mapping and rock chip sampling; which has returned gold grades of up to 7.2g/t and copper up to 1.8% within the gossan;
· Completion of the field data collection for the Self-Potential (“SP”) geophysical survey;
· Systematic trenching across the mapped gossans with 13 of the planned 28 trenches completed and dispatched for analysis; and
· Planning for the Q2 2022 scout diamond drilling programme.
Harry Anagnostaras-Adams, Executive Chairman of KEFI Gold and Copper, commented:
“Our 2022 projects in Saudi Arabia took off two months ago, with the reporting of a significantly expanded and upgraded Mineral Resource Estimate at Hawiah, the granting of the Al Godeyer Exploration Licences and the informal indications from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Mineral Resources that our Jibal Qutman Gold Project will have its mining licence application processed this year.
“Our field teams have immediately responded and are focussed on achieving our key 2022 objectives in Saudi Arabia of completing the Hawiah Copper-Gold Project PFS, updating Jibal Qutman’s development plans and rapidly hitting the ground at Al Godeyer, where early results indicate significant VMS potential, similar to the copper-gold deposits at Hawiah. Success at Al Godeyer would potentially add substantial value to the development of the Hawiah project.
“VMS deposits typically form in clusters and Al Godeyer is only one of the many VMS prospects in the G&M pipeline of exploration targets.”
