Metall outlines one million tonnes at high-grade Dikili gold

Exploration on the Dikili gold prospect in western Turkey has outlined a high-grade, shallow reserve of over one million tonnes.

Eurogold, a joint venture between ACM Gold of Australia and Toronto-based Metall Mining (TSE), calculated both open pit and underground preliminary reserves based on drill results from the prospect’s two gold-bearing quartz veins, the M vein and the S vein. Metall, a subsidiary of Germany’s Metallgesellschaft, owns a 33% stake in the joint venture.

Undiluted open pit reserves for both veins total 710,000 tonnes at an average grade of 10.4 grams gold per tonne – 220,000 tonnes at 13 grams in the M vein and 490,000 tonnes at 9.2 grams in the S vein. Underground reserves, calculated only for the M vein, total 280,000 tonnes grading 24 grams gold.

With dilution, open pit tonnages jump to 800,000 while grades average 9.5 grams. Underground tonnages increase to 330,000 at 20 grams.

The reserve calculations, which follow a $10-million exploration program initiated last summer, form the basis of a feasibility study for the development of an open pit mine, to be followed by an underground mine.

Eurogold will continue drilling at Dikili with hopes of finding additional underground reserves, said Norman Hardie, Metall’s vice-president of projects and corporate development. Because grades decline with depth on the S vein, he said, any additional reserves will likely be confined to extensions of the M vein.

Initial core recovery problems at Dikili have been resolved with the arrival of two bigger rigs from New Zealand.

About five kilometres north of Dikili, Eurogold is testing similar vein-type mineralization at the Narlica prospect. Hardie said results of surface sampling on the site have proved encouraging.