Segun Lawson, President and CEO of Thor Explorations (TSX.V:THX – US:THXPF), joins us to review the Q3 Operations at the Segilola Gold Mine, and an exploration update for Segilola, Douta, and the new Thor Lithium claims.
In Q3 the Segilola gold production was 19,104 ounces during the quarter at an average grade of 2.46 grammes per tonne (g/t) of gold. Segun reiterated that the full year 2023 production guidance of 85,000 oz of gold is maintained, and mentioned the AISC guidance for the year is also maintained at US$1,150 – US$1,350 per ounce. We reviewed that the Company anticipated that the mine grade would be lower in the period, and this has resulted in recovered gold being at the low end of expectation for the period. Now that the main west wall push back is complete, the operating conditions in the pit are much improved, facilitating the opening up of more mining faces into higher grade material, and this should be a positive contributing factor for operations and grades in the quarters to come.
At Segilola, the focus of exploration activities has been within a 25km radius from the mining operations, utilizing reverse circulation (RC) drilling, stream sediment sampling, and grid auger sampling. The Kola Prospect, which is located 23km south of Segilola has emerged as a key target, with full results from the drilling still pending. Additionally, there has been continued diamond drilling on identified high-grade quartz-vein style mineralization at Aye-Ile prospect, which is located 15km west of Segilola with several narrow high-grade intersections obtained thus far.
At the Douta Project, there is ongoing environmental and social permitting, metallurgical test work, geo-technical studies, and definition drilling underway to feed into the work needed for the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) slated for delivery to the market by year-end. Additionally, more step-out drilling and resource drilling at the Makosa deposit has been completed, to move resources from inferred to indicated, as well as expansion drilling around some of the new mineralized satellite discoveries, with particular emphasis on the Sambara target.
We also discussed the exploration work at the new lithium subsidiary of the company, with a total of 77 RC drillholes totaling 4,585 meters that were drilled a the Oyo Project Location 6. Significant intersections previously reported include 11m grading 1.53% lithium oxide (Li2O), 9m grading 2.42% Li2O and 11m grading 2.61% Li2O. Additional land tenures were obtained at both the Oyo and Ekiti Project Area, with reconnaissance mapping and sampling at the Ekiti Project returning positive results.
If you have any questions for Segun regarding the ongoing work at Thor Explorations, then please email us at Fleck@kerport.com or shad@kereport.com.
*In full disclosure, Shad is a shareholder of Thor Explorations.
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