North Atlantic’s Mali resource grows (June 25, 2007)

Expanded drill coverage has confirmed a larger gold deposit at the FT gold project in southern Mali, held by North Atlantic Resources (NAC-T, NOATF-O).

The new estimate calculated an indicated resource of 7.9 million tonnes grading 0.95 gram gold per tonne at the Tiekoumala deposit, on the northern part of the Foulalaba-Tiekoumala shear zone. Of that, about 1 million tonnes grading 1.01 gram is oxide material, with the rest sulphides.

Tiekoumala also has an inferred resource of 1.4 million tonnes grading 0.87 gram per tonne, mostly in sulphides.

At Foulalaba, to the south, consultant Andrew Daniels calculated an inferred resource of 9.2 million tonnes grading 1.07 grams gold per tonne, 90% of which was in sulphide material. All the resources have a cutoff grade of 0.2 gram gold per tonne and a minimum width of 2 metres.

An earlier resource calculation, with a higher cutoff of 0.5 gram per tonne, and a smaller drill database, had shown about half as much gold at FT. It put the Tiekoumala resource at 4.5 million tonnes, indicated, grading 1 gram per tonne, plus 2.3 million tonnes, inferred, grading 1.1 grams. At Foulalaba, the estimated inferred resource was 3 million tonnes at 1.1 grams per tonne.

More drilling is planned on the extensions of the two zones.