Teranga acquired Golden Hill as an early-stage exploration project in 2016 as part of its acquisition of Gryphon Minerals.
Formerly part of a joint venture, Golden Hill is now 100% wholly owned by Teranga. Located within the central part of the highly mineralized Houndé Greenstone Belt, Golden Hill is surrounded by an area known for gold discoveries, including the Siou, Houndé (contiguous with Golden Hill) and high-grade Yaramoko deposits.
Exploration is advancing rapidly. In just three years, Golden Hill has produced a series of excellent grade, near surface and deeper drill results at a variety of prospects. Currently there are over a dozen prospects and deposits, the majority of which are located within 10 kilometres from a central point on the property.
Utilizing both core and reverse circulation drills, the 2019-2020 drill program is targeting the Ma Structural Complex (Main, North, South, East, Far North and Jonction), Peksou, Peksou North, Copper, Gogoba West, Gogoba North, Pourey, A, B and C-Zones.
Based on encouraging drill results to date, confidence continues to increase that Golden Hill could be Teranga’s third gold mine. For a detailed geologic summary and a cumulative table of exploration drill results, please refer to the Exploration section.
Early-Stage Initial Mineral Resource
Following an 18-month exploration and drilling program,
Teranga announced an early-stage initial mineral resource estimate in 2019 for Golden Hill's most advanced prospects (Ma Main, Ma North, Peksou, C-Zone, A-B Zone, Jackhammer Hill and Nahiri). The resource estimate included an indicated mineral resource of 6.40Mt averaging 2.02 g/t gold for 415,000 ounces and an inferred mineral resource of 11.95Mt averaging 1.68 g/t gold for 644,000 ounces (as at November 30, 2018).
Current Drilling and Exploration Program
A 27,000-metre exploration program was completed at Golden Hill in Q1 2020. The
principal objective of this program was to facilitate an update to the initial resource estimation and support a technical
update in 2020 through the drilling of mineralization extensions at a number of deposits and prospects with
the current resources, as well as initial drilling at a number of new targets. More than a dozen separate drill targets were identified for inclusion in this drilling evaluation program, including five that have not been previously drilled.
In January 2020, Teranga announced that 20,000 metres drilled as part of the 27,000-metre program have returned high-grade gold intercepts from near surface to depth at several existing targets and encouraging gold grades in numerous step-out holes. The campaign also uncovered a new discovery: The Ma Jonction prospect, located between Ma Main and Ma North.
2020 Next Steps
- Release an updated resource estimation with results from the 27,000-metre drill program completed in Q1 2020.
- Commence a new exploration and drilling program to continue to evaluate the numerous prospects and deposits identified to date and expand drilling outward to new areas of interest.
- Continue with early-stage engineering studies, metallurgical test work, environmental and social assessments as we move toward a technical update.
- Submit a request to the Burkina Faso government for the conversion of the Golden Hill exploration permits to a mine license in H2 2020 based on a technical study supported by a resource estimate update.