Ashanti doubles resource in Tanzania

African miner Ashanti Goldfields (ASL-N) has released a new resource figure for the Geita gold project in Tanzania.

Based on recent drilling along the 4.5-km trend of mineralization, the resource at Geita jumped 128%, to 3 from from 1.3 million oz. gold. The company drilled 178 holes (totalling 19,000 metres), using 80-by-40-Metre spacings along the trend. The measured, indicated and inferred resource now stands at 32.6 million tonnes grading 2.8 grams gold per tonne using a 1-gram cutoff.

The resource was calculated to a depth of 150 metres at Geita Hill and to 100 metres at the Nyankanga and Lone Cone targets. Nearly 30% of the resource is in oxide material, 16% is in a transitional zone, and the remainder is sulphide material.

Optimization studies indicate that 62% of the resource is found within three potential pits. The average stripping ratio would be 5-To-1. The company plans to begin another round of drilling to extend the mineralized zones laterally and at depth, as well as continue metallurgical testing, which will be included in a feasibility study. Gold mineralization is associated with pyrite and hosted in a thick sequence of banded iron formation which forms a northeast-Trending ridge.