Thor Explorations has announced an operational update for its Segilola Gold Mine, located in Osun State, Nigeria, and for the Company’s mineral exploration properties located in Nigeria, Senegal and Burkina Faso for the three months to March 31, 2023.
In corporate operations, the Company’s senior debt facility with the Africa Finance Corporation (“AFC”) was amended and restated to facilitate its growth opportunities, even as the senior debt facility reduced to $27.9 million as at 31 March 2023.
Thor is a mineral exploration company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and production of mineral properties located in Nigeria, Senegal and Burkina Faso. It also holds a 100% interest in the Segilola Gold Project, and has a 70% economic interest in the Douta Gold Project located in South-Eastern Senegal.
For the Segilola project, Thor reported gold production of 20,629 ounces (“oz”) during the Quarter at an average grade of 2.95 grammes per tonne (g/t) of gold (Au).
There was also an identification of new high grade quartz vein system within 15 kilometers of Segilola, with multiple high grade drillhole intercepts, including 1m at 310 g/t Au which equates to 10 ounces of gold per tonne.
In Douta Exploration, mineral resource estimate updated to approximately 1.78 million ounces (“Moz”) of gold, an increase of 144% in total resource as compared with the 2022 maiden mineral resource estimate declared for Douta in November 2021.
The Douta resource constrained within optimized pit shells and comprised of an initial Indicated mineral resource of 20.2 million tonnes (“mt”), grading 1.3 g/t Au for 874,900 oz Au. In addition, an inferred mineral resource of 24.1 Mt, grading 1.2 g/t Au for 909,400 oz Au was reported.
Douta resource is supported by a total of 64,567 metres of drilling and updated douta resource encompasses the Makosa, Makosa Tail and the recently discovered Sambara prospects, all of which remain open along strike and down dip.
Drilling is ongoing at Douta with a further 40,000 metre drilling programme to be completed in 2023 consisting of diamond drilling and reverse circulation drilling. Mineralization remains open along strike between the known prospects with further growth potential along 20 kilometres of under-explored prospective strike length covered by the Douta exploration permit
Thor’s Full Year 2023 production guidance range remains at 85,000 to 95,000 oz of gold weighted towards the second half of the year.
H1 2023 drilling programs include the resumption of drilling at Segilola aimed at increasing resources for potential future transition to underground operation and mine life extension.
There are also plans for step-out drilling at Douta project in Senegal, aimed at further increasing existing resource, as well as the continuation of drilling at Segilola regional targets, with an initial program at the Company’s new Malete prospect also in focus.
Other activities line up for the reminder of the year are the completion of the Douta preliminary feasibility study (“PFS”) in Q4 2023, applications for and acquisition of identified prospective exploration properties in Nigeria, and the continuation of exploration programs across exploration portfolio in Nigeria.
In the words of Segun Lawson, who is Thor’s President & CEO, “I am pleased to report another quarter of solid production at Segilola for Q1 2023. The planned west wall push-back is progressing and we are well positioned for an increase in gold production following its completion late in Q2 2023 as the mine head grade improves over the next 3-6 months.
“The 2023 Mineral Resource Estimate at Douta has more than doubled the contained gold within the Douta permit to over 1.7 million ounces, with the Indicated Resource component of the resource alone exceeding 870,000 oz of gold. This is an excellent result and we’re targeting further growth of the total resource as we proceed with a further 40,000 metres of drilling over the course of the year.
“Exploration is continuing on a number of greenfield opportunities in Nigeria which are delivering encouraging results as highlighted by our recent ten oz per ton drillhole intersection near Segilola. We have also continued to evaluate potential opportunities to leverage our technical capabilities and first mover advantage in Nigeria and I look forward to presenting our progress in this respect in Q2 2023.”
In Q1 2023, mined and processed ore were 198,425 tonnes and 231,001 tonnes respectively. The average mine head grade was 2.85 g/t and processed grade 2.95 g/t, blended from mining and existing stockpile.
Gold production during the quarter was approximately 5% lower than planned due to lower production drilling rates as a result of more challenging ground conditions, including large boulders, at the upper levels of the western push-back.
Approximately 25% of total material mined and 31% of mined ore during the quarter was from lower grade areas, which were originally planned to be mined later in the year. Mining of this area has now been mostly completed and the deficit is expected to be recovered later in the year as operations re-align with the 2023 mine plan.
At the end of the quarter, additional two production drilling rigs and fourteen new haul trucks were imported by the mining contractor in order to prepare for the planned step-up in production over the next 12 months. The drilling rigs have been commissioned and are now in operation and the haul trucks were released from Lagos Port to site.
Process plant operations were impacted by the lower than planned mine head grade. Recoveries are generally correlated to mill feed grade and, consequently, recovery reduced to 94.1% for the quarter.
The process plant throughput continued to be well above design during the quarter. A modification of the CIP circuit to CIL is currently being implemented in order to increase the residence time for carbon adsorption and the existing agitators are to be replaced with a larger model in order to improve circulation in the tanks.
These enhancements are due to be completed in Q4 2023 and are aimed at further improving process plant recoveries.
Ore stockpile of 270,215 tonnes of ore, grading 1.14 g/t and containing approximately 9,931 oz was reported for the quarter as compared to Q4 2022 of 300,531 tonnes of ore, grading 1.48 g/t and containing approximately 14,323 oz.
