Canadian firm Guyana Goldfields Inc (GGI) found higher levels of gold than had been projected during operations at its Aurora mine last year and has set aside US$3 million for further exploration this year.
“As of December 31, 2015, 27% more ounces of gold were contained in the ore mined than were predicted by the ore reserve model for the Project,” the company said in a statement yesterday. “Results to date demonstrate a conservative ore reserve model and the high grade, profitable nature of the Aurora Gold Mine,” Scott A. Caldwell, the President and CEO of the company was quoted as saying.
GGI has updated its Mineral Reserves utilizing a gold price of US$1000 per ounce at its Aurora Gold Mine. The statement said the company produced 35,901 ounces of gold for the year ended December 31, 2015 and achieved commercial production January 1, 2016. Total proven and probable Mineral Reserves are 3,042,000 ounces, net of depletion.
The statement said that management estimates from internal modelling that with a higher gold price of approximately US$1,250 per ounce, an additional 1.5 million economic ounces of gold can be returned back into the mine plan.
It noted that the company’s 2016 exploration programme is focused on exploration targets within a close proximity radius of the Aurora Gold Mine as potential sources of new open pit feed.
“There are several drill ready targets proximal to the Aurora Gold Mine of which the Iroma prospect is the most highly significant. The Iroma Prospect is located approximately 10 km northeast of the Aurora Gold Mine with a total land area of approximately 120 square km. Baseline exploration work including deep saprolite drilling has delineated a coherent 8.5 km by 0.5 km gold anomaly in soils.
Drilling of this area is the prime target for the year. An exploration budget of US$3M has been allocated for 2016,” the statement said.
