Azumah works to grow planned pits at Wa gold project

VANCOUVER — Continued gold intercepts from drilling between various pits at the proposed Wa gold mine in Ghana suggest that owner Azumah Resources (AZR-V) could reveal a larger gold reserve in its pending feasibility study update.

The Wa Gold project is located in northwest Ghana. It spans 3,157 sq. km with more than 100 km of prospective strike along the Birimian greenstone belt. Azumah says that 90% of the property remains unexplored. 

In the 10% it has explored, Azumah has defined five deposits clustered in two areas. The Bepkong, Aduane and Kunche deposits line up north–south in the middle of the Wa-Lawra area, while the Julie and Colette deposits sit 15 km apart in Wa East.

A mid-2012 feasibility study of Wa outlined a number of open pits feeding a central mill. For example, the Julie deposit was to be mined using pits over 4 km of strike, with each pit averaging 60 metres in depth. Plans for the Wa-Lawra area were similar, and as a result the mine’s strip ratio was almost 5 to 1, and cash production costs averaged US$802 per oz. over the mine’s six-year life.

Since this report, Azumah has been working to prove up mineralization between the proposed pits to increase overall reserves and, hopefully, reduce the number of pits. While the new reserve estimate and pit outlines will not be released until the feasibility study update comes out later this year, a new resource estimate and continued gold intercepts suggest Azumah’s efforts are paying off.

At the Julie deposit, the resources jumped 84% in March with the new estimate rising to more than 1 million contained oz. Azumah says preliminary optimizations on the expanded resource suggest the pits will grow, while infill drilling in one of the largest pits is producing good gold intercepts.

Hole 761 cut 3 metres grading 15.59 grams gold per tonne from 73 metres depth. Hole 763 returned 5 metres of 12.69 grams gold from 68 metres depth, followed by 2 metres of 6.01 grams gold. Hole 762 intercepted 2 metres of 4.37 grams gold, hole 764 hit 8 metres of 2.08 grams gold and hole 756 returned 4 metres of 3.43 grams gold. 

Azumah says the results should help upgrade inferred resources to indicated status, which makes the tonnes eligible for inclusion in the reserve if they pit into an economic pit shell. 

Roughly 30 km southwest of Julie, Azumah is exploring the Josephine North prospect, where artisanal workings extend along 400 metres strike to 5 metres depth. The workings track narrow, steeply dipping quartz lodes within a shear zone. Historical drilling returned several high-grade intercepts from the area, and now Azumah has drilled holes of its own.

Results from the 11-hole program include 14 metres of 2.18 grams gold, 6 metres of 4.79 grams gold and 5 metres of 2.03 grams gold. The company says the results “emphasize the prospectivity of its entire project tenure.”

The March resource update increased the total contained gold count at Wa by 32%. The project is now home to 23.7 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 1.78 grams gold for 1.4 million oz., plus 16.7 million inferred tonnes averaging 1.58 grams gold for 849,000 oz. If nothing else the added ounces should enable deeper pits, as many of the new tonnes lie below the old resource. The pits at Julie, for instance, could reach 150 metres depth instead of just 60 metres.  

Azumah’s share price was unchanged on the drill results, remaining at 4¢. The Australian-based junior has a 52-week trading range of 4¢ to 23¢, and 334 million shares outstanding.