Nov 14 2017
Endeavour Mining is pleased to provide an update of its on-going exploration campaign at both its Houndé and Karma mines in Burkina Faso, ahead of its investor day and site visits.
At the Houndé mine, following two years of inactivity, exploration resumed in early 2017 and has confirmed the presence of significant potential with a high-grade discovery in the eastern part of the 6km-long Kari geochemical anomaly, while high grade mineralization was also intercepted on several other targets.
At the Karma mine, drilling has confirmed mineralization at the Yabongso target and has discovered a parallel oxide structure east of the North Kao deposit, both of which are expected to be delineated into resources in Q1-2018 and add further potential to extend its mine life.
Sebastien de Montessus, President & CEO, stated: "Last year we highlighted the Group's exploration potential as being a key source of long-term value creation for our shareholders and we launched a reinvigorated exploration program with 5-year discovery targets. Over the past year we have already enjoyed significant success at our Ivorian Ity mine, which was a key priority ahead of launching its CIL project. We are now pleased to share the results of our 2017 Burkina Faso exploration program as it provides further confidence in the discovery targets set last year and our ability to extend and enhance our mine lives.
Over the past two years we have made significant investments to increase our presence in Burkina Faso as we believe it is an exciting under-explored mining jurisdiction where we have demonstrated our ability to efficiently build and operate mines. As one of the largest producers in the country, we now look forward to continuing to expand our footprint by leveraging our greenfield exploration potential."
Patrick Bouisset, Executive President Exploration and Growth stated: "At Houndé, the high-grade drill results obtained at Kari Pump and at the other targets are very encouraging since they are in line with our objective of discovering and delineating higher-grade deposits which can complement production from the main Vindaloo deposit and extend its current 10-year reserve mine life at low AISC with a production profile of more than 200koz of gold per annum."
"We are very pleased with the exploration success achieved at Karma since we acquired the asset in mid-2016. Last year we successfully extended its mine life from 8 to beyond 10 years with the addition of North Kao, and the initial results of this year's campaign continue to be very encouraging as they suggest the possibility for further resource delineation. After confirming mineralization at the Yabongso target, we intend to also drill other selected high priority targets throughout 2018," added Mr. Bouisset.