(Ecofin Agency) - Guinea’s mining company Société Guinéenne du Patrimoine Minier (SOGUIPAMI) is developing a program to reinforce the operation of its gold licenses at Siguiri, including soil geochemistry and trenching on identified mineralization.
According to initial ground sampling results, the 22 270 permit of Siguiri reveals varying grades between 0.5 and 11,614 parts per billion of gold; with 58% of the samples collected showing grades higher than or equal to 5 ppb with an average of 49.1 ppb; 24.13% of the samples collected are higher than or equal to 10 Au ppb (with an average of 109.9 Au ppb); 8.2% of the values ≥ 20 Au ppb (average grade 298.52 is Au ppb) and 3.0% of the values are greater than 50 Au ppb (average grade is 761.43 Au ppb).
Meanwhile, on the 22 271 permit, the ground sampling results show grades between 0.5 and 384 Au ppb with 24.2% of the samples collected showing gold grades ≥ at 5 ppb and an average of 13.72 ppb, 7.08% of the grades are ≥ 10 Au ppb (with an average grade of 31.46 Au ppb), 2.4% of the values are higher than 20 Au ppb (with an average grade of 66.97 Au ppb) and 1.3% of the values are higher than 50 Au ppb (with average grade of 103.89 Au ppb).
“For all these mining assets, our objective is to spot the best technical and financial partners to operate them, from exploration to exploitation; we are pleased to have these permits which add up to our broad portfolio including Bauxite, Diamond, Nickel, Cobalt, and Manganese,” the company’s MD, Mamady FOFANA, said.
The two Siguiri permits are quite promising regarding their strategic geographical positions; they are located in the Birimian volcano-sedimentary rock belt of Siguiri, an area that contains some of Guinea's largest gold deposits.
The 22 270 permit contains 9 controlled gold mining sites while the 22 271 permit is located 20km from the SAG mine, an active mine with an annual production of 240,000 oz and mineral reserves estimated, at the beginning of mining, at about 8.5 Moz.