Step-out drilling grows Tietto gold play

Tietto Minerals’ 3.45-million-ounce Abujar project in Cote d’Ivore, West Africa is looking like the gift that keeps on giving after a shallow, step-out diamond drilling campaign extended the operation’s mineralisation by 4.6km. The program tested five undrilled prospects along the project’s main shear and delivered a wealth of promising hits, including a 1m hit going 47.35 grams per tonne gold from 258m.

Other notable results include 1m at 25.14 g/t gold from 26m, 0.93m going 17.67 g/t gold from 24m and 6m grading 2.66 g/t gold from a depth of 190m.

According to the ASX-listed gold developer, the 77 hole, more than 15,000m campaign tested targets up and down strike from a suite of previously intercepted high-grade gold hits and was aimed at boosting its open pit assets ahead of its next mineral resource estimate.

The company says assays results are still pending for a batch of infill holes plunged at its nearby AG South and AG Core deposits – potentially extending its precious metal footprint even further.

Following the probe’s conclusion, management suggested it would mobilise its fleet of six company-owned diamond rigs to Abujar’s main shear, where the convoy will assess a largely untapped sector with new resource definition drilling.

Tietto has used the rigs to great effect over the last year or so, plunging about 10,000m per month at a paltry cost of around US$35 per metre.

The company has suggested that by the end of 2022 it will have sunk around 100,000m at Abujar.

Tietto is looking to prop up an open pit mine at the project and says on completion it could be one of the country’s largest producing assets, with more than 260,000 ounces anticipated in its first year and about 1.2 million ounces in the first six.

The company says Abujar remains on track for an end of year gold pour after recently ticking off a number of construction items in the mine’s development.

The company is well positioned to bankroll the US$200 million operation, having recently tied down a $85 million placement that will be employed in tandem to its debt strategy to drive the project into life.

In what will also serve as a shot in the arm, management has announced recent metallurgical test work of lower‐grade ore from another deposit at the project has produced exceptional gold recoveries of up to 95 per cent.

The company’s ongoing success seems to be increasingly de-risked by Abujar’s development and with ongoing drilling continuing to stretch the already massive resource it appears as though Tietto may have further treasures to uncover at its African gold play.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au