Maiden Mineral Resource Estimate and Mansa Discovery Drilling Results Declared for the Douta Gold Project, Senegal
Maiden Mineral Resource Estimate and Mansa
Discovery Drilling Results Declared for the
Douta Gold Project, Senegal
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 18, 2021) - Thor Explorations Ltd. (TSXV:
THX) (AIM: THX) ("
Thor
" or the "
Company
") is pleased to announce an initial NI 43-101 standard
Maiden Mineral Resource Estimate ("MRE") for the Makosa Deposit which is located in the southern
portion of the Douta Gold Project in Senegal.
Highlights:
Maiden Resource Estimate for Douta Project is supported by a total of 35,728 metres of drilling
Maiden Resource of 730,000 ounces of gold grading at 1.5g/tAu
Mineralisation at Makosa remains open along strike with further growth potential
New mineralised discovery at the Mansa Prospect located 5km along strike from Makosa
The MRE is classified as Inferred Resources and is constrained within optimised pit shells and
comprises 15.3 million tonnes grading 1.5 grammes per tonne ("g/t") gold ("Au") for 730,000 ounces of
gold.
The Company is also pleased to announce that exploration drilling at the Mansa Prospect, which is
located 5km along strike from Makosa, resulted in encouraging drilling intersections including
4 metres
("m") grading 3.11 g/t Au, 5m grading 1.75g/t Au
and
2m grading 10.65g/t Au.
The Makosa MRE encompasses the Makosa, Makosa North and Makosa Tail zones, which all remain
open along strike and down dip, and are expected to grow with ongoing drilling either along strike or at
depth.
The MRE provides a foundation for continued resource growth along strike to the north from Makosa
North together with the satellite deposits, including the newly discovered Mansa, that are currently being
assessed along the 30 kilometre long Makosa gold corridor.
Segun Lawson, President & CEO, stated
"The Makosa Maiden Resource Estimate is the Company's first major milestone at the Douta Project.
The resource is the culmination of the first round of mostly wide-spaced exploration drilling conducted
over a strike length of over seven kilometres. This provides for a solid growth platform for Thor
following the greenfield discoveries of Makosa and Makosa Tail in 2018 and 2020 respectively.
"We are now focussing our exploration towards expanding the resource along the prospective corridor
that runs along the full 30km length of our exploration licence. Priority will be given to extensional
drilling at Makosa North where the mineralisation remains open-ended towards the north-east.
"We are equally excited with the first drilling results from our new greenfield discovery Mansa which is
located on the same structure as Makosa. In addition to undertaking definition drilling at Mansa the
5km gap between Makosa North and Mansa will also be targeted in our next drilling program."
About Thor
Thor Explorations Ltd. is a Canadian mineral exploration company engaged in the acquisition,
exploration and development of mineral properties located in Nigeria, Senegal and Burkina Faso. Thor
holds a 100% interest in the Segilola Gold Project located in Osun State of Nigeria and a 70% interest in
the Douta Gold Project located in south-eastern Senegal. Thor trades on the TSX Venture Exchange
under the symbol "THX".
THOR EXPLORATIONS LTD.
Segun Lawson
President & CEO
Qualified Person
The above information relating to the resource estimate has been prepared by Mr Babacar Diouf (MSc
Queens University, Ontario, M.AusIMM, Member Association des Ingenieurs Geologues sortant de
I'IST(AGIST), Principal Geologist of Azimuth Consulting Senegal, who is responsible for this Mineral
Resource statement and is an "Independent Qualified Person" as defined in NI43-101 and is a qualified
person under the AIM Rules and has reviewed and approves the content of this news release.
The information relating to exploration results has been prepared under the supervision of Alfred Gillman
(Fellow AusIMM, CP), who is designated as a "qualified person" under National Instrument 43-101 and
the AIM Rules and has reviewed and approves the content of this news release. He has also reviewed
QA/QC, sampling, analytical and test data underlying the information.
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU)
596/2014
.
For further information please contact:
Thor Explorations Ltd
Email:
Canaccord Genuity (Nominated Adviser & Broker)
Henry Fitzgerald-O'Connor / James Asensio / Thomas Diehl
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7523 8000
Hannam & Partners (Broker)
Andrew Chubb / Matt Hasson / Nilesh Patel / Franck Nganou
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7907 8500
Fig House Communications (Investor Relations)
Tel: +1 416 822 6483
Email:
Blytheweigh (Financial PR)
Tim Blythe / Megan Ray / Rachael Brooks
Tel: +44 207 138 3203
Introduction
The Douta Gold Project is a gold exploration permit, E02038, which covers an area of 58 square
kilometres ("km
2
") and is located within the Kéniéba inlier, eastern Senegal. The northeast trending
permit (Figure 1) has an area of 58 km
2
. Thor, through its wholly owned subsidiary African Star
Resources Incorporated ("African Star"), has a 70% economic interest in partnership with the permit
holder International Mining Company SARL ("IMC"). IMC has a 30% free carried interest in its
development until the announcement by Thor of a Probable Reserve.
The Douta licence is strategically positioned 4km east of the deposits Massawa North and Massawa
Central deposits which form part of the world class Sabadola-Massawa Project that is owned by
Endeavour Mining (Figure 1). The Makabingui deposit, belonging to Bassari Resources Ltd, is located
immediately to the east of the northern portion of E02038.
Figure 1: Douta Project Location Map
To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:
https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7003/104023_6e5fb3b1847e99a4_002full.jpg
Mineral Resource Estimate
Summary
Thor is pleased to declare an initial resource estimate
(MRE) of 15 million tonnes ("Mt") grading 1.53g/t
Au for 730,000 ounces gold in the Inferred category at the Douta Gold Project in eastern Senegal. The
MRE encompasses the Makosa, Makosa North and Makosa Tail zones, which are collectively named
the Makosa Resource.
The MRE has been estimated by an independent consultant and is reported at a cut-off grade of 0.3g/t
Au within optimised shells using a gold price of US$2,200.
Deposit
Classification
Tonnage
Grade
Contained
Metal
Thor Interest
(70%)
Mt
Au g/t
koz Au
koz Au
Makosa
Inferred
11.7
1.5
550
385
Makosa Tail
Inferred
3.6
1.6
180
126
Total Makosa
Inferred
15.3
1.5
730
511
Table 1: Douta Gold Project Mineral Resource Estimate, November 2021 (reported at cut-off
grade of 0.3g/t Au)
Open Pit Mineral Resources are reported in situ at a cut-off grade of 0.30 g/t Au. An optimised
Whittle shell ($2,200) was used to constrain the resources.
The Mineral Resource is considered to have reasonable prospects for economic extraction by
open pit mining methods above a 0.30 g/t Au and within an optimised pit shell.
Metallurgical and mining recovery factors not applied.
Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability.
Totals may not add exactly due to rounding.
The statement used the terminology, definitions and guidelines given in the CIM Standards on
Mineral resources and Mineral Reserves (May 2014) as required by NI 43-101.
Bulk density is assigned according to weathering profile with a weighted average of 2.78.
Mr B. Diouf (CP), Principal Geologist of Azimuth Consulting Senegal, is responsible for this
Mineral Resource statement and is an "Independent Qualified Person" as defined in NI 43-101.
Mr Diouf has undertaken several site visits during the course of the resource drilling and is
satisfied that industry-standard sampling and QAQC procedures have been followed.
Drilling
Thor completed a total of 37,665m of drilling consisting of 1,937m of diamond drilling and 35,728m of
Reverse Circulation ("RC") drilling which have been used to generate the updated MRE. RC drilling was
carried out by International Drilling Company (2017), Sendrill Consulting (2018) and Sengold (2020-
2021), while historic diamond drilling was carried out by ADS (2012).
Sample Analysis and Database
Drilling has been almost exclusively sampled on 1m intervals with the primary laboratory for analysis
being ALS Global's laboratory in Bamako, Mali. Split samples ranging in weight from 0.5 kilogrammes
("kg") to 3.5kg, with an average of 2.3kg were collected for analysis. After the sample preparation
analysis, a fire assay with an atomic absorption finish on a 50 grammes ("g") subsample of the pulp
(AA26), was completed umpire samples were submitted to the MSA laboratory in Abidjan.
Standard QA/QC protocols were followed with inserts of certified standards, blanks and duplicates
representing approximately 10% of all analyses.
The Company's database is maintained internally with independent audits carried out by Cube
Consulting (Perth) on request.
Mineral Resource Estimation
A two-pass ordinary kriged grade estimation was carried out within hard geological boundaries defined
by a nominal modelling grade cut off of 0.5g/tAu. Twenty two individual veins for Makosa/Makosa North
and 16 veins for Makosa Tail were created and
then combined into a single domain for Makosa/Makosa
North and a single domain for Makosa Tail.
A weathering model was developed so bulk densities could be assigned according to weathering state.
The tonnage factor in the block models was determined by assigning the bulk densities to the following
material types:
2.70 t/m3 for Fresh (FRS),
2.65 t/m3 for weakly oxidized (WOX),
2.50 t/m3 for moderately oxidized (MOX), and
2.40 t/m3 for strongly oxidized (SOX).
At this stage of the project, it is appropriate that blocks within the Makosa mineralised zones have the
same average bulk densities as the blocks within the Makosa waste zones.
Exploratory Data Analysis and Top Cut Selection
Prior to selecting the composite length, the average sample length was determined. The majority (91%)
of the samples are 1.0m long, thus a 1m composite length was adopted.
Statistical analysis was completed on assay values composited to 1m and extracted from within the
mineralised zone domains for the two prospect areas, with a top cut (cap) being selected to reduce the
influence of any 'outlier' high grades.
Globally, a total of 1,879 composites were included in the database for top capping analysis. At Makosa
Main, seven (7) composite gold values that exceeded 15g/t were reduced to 15g/t. At Makosa Tail, three
(3) Composite gold values that exceeded 30g/t were reduced to 30g/t. Gold composite values below
were unchanged. The effect of the application of the top cuts is summarised in Table 2.
At Makosa, the top capping reduced the average mean grade from 1.31g/t Au to 1.27g/t Au.
At Makosa Tail, the top capping reduced the average mean grade from 1.64g/t Au to 1.51g/t Au.
Domain
No of
Composites
Maximum
Au (g/t)
Mean Au
(g/t)
Top Cut
Au (g/t)
Capped
Mean
Au (g/t)
No of
Composites
affected
%
Metal
Makosa
1401
38.6
1.31
15
1.27
7
-3%
Makosa
Tail
478
57.9
1.64
15
1.51
3
-8%
Total
1879
57.90
1.39
1.330
10
-4%
Table 2: Composite statistics and effect of top cut on contained metal
Estimation Methodology
Variography was carried out on each combined domain with the appropriate parameters used to
estimate the gold grade using Ordinary Kriging (OK). Due to the difference in orientation between
Makosa Tail and Makosa/Makosa North two separate blocks were created to better align blocks with the
orientation of the lode systems.
Block estimation used a two-pass strategy with the number of required samples (2 to 20) maintained in
each pass, and search distance increased for the second estimation pass.
Kriging statistics (estimated grade, kriging efficiency, conditional bias slope, average distance to
samples) were then plotted against the number of informing samples to optimise the outcomes. This was
done primarily to avoid local conditional biases (too few samples) and over-smoothing (too many
samples) of the estimated grade.
Mineral Resource Constraints
To test the reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction, the Makosa Mineral Resource is
constrained by an optimised pit shell (revenue factor of 1) defined by the parameters shown in Table 3.
A cross-section showing the pit shell in relation to the mineral resource at Makosa Tail is illustrated in
Figure 3.
Parameter
Unit
SOX
Strongly oxidised: 4% of the resource
45
degrees
MOX
Medium oxidised: 6% of the resource
45
degrees
WOX
Weakly oxidised: 4% of the resource
50
degrees
Fresh
Fresh Rock and sulphides: 86% of the resource
58
degrees
Mining Cost
- Load and Haul
US$1.2/t @ surface, increase $0.1/t per 5m bench
1.2
$/t
D&B - SOX
2.60 Total cost $/t
2.6
$/t
D&B -
MOX/WOX
3.10 Total cost $/t
3.1
$/t
D&B - Fresh
4.00 Total cost $/t
4
$/t
Total
10.9
$/t
Mining Recovery
95
%
Mining Dilution
5
%
Processing Cost
- Variable Cost
power, reagents, consumables, direct labour costs
16
$/t ore
- G&A + overheads
5.5
$/t ore
- Grade Control
blast hole sampling/gc program
0.5
$/t ore
- Ore Mining
Included in Mining Cost
$/t ore
Total
22
$/t
Process Recovery
SOX
90
%
MOX
90
%
WOX
90
%
Fresh
88
%
Product Sell Price
Multiple gold prices to be run
$2,200
US$/oz
Sell Price
$70.73
US$/t
Discount Rate
8
%
Mill Limit
2.5
Mill Mt/pa
Table 3: Open Pit Optimisation Parameters
Classification
Drill hole density ranges from 50m to 200m spaced sections with spacing between holes on-section
typically 30m (refer Figure 2). Notwithstanding the demonstrated geological continuity over a 7km strike
length, the classification as 100% Inferred Resources is considered appropriate for the current level of
understanding and development of the Mineral Resource.
Figure 2: Makosa Drillhole Location Plan
To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:
https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7003/104023_6e5fb3b1847e99a4_003full.jpg
Metallurgical Factors
Thor has submitted metallurgical samples to ALS (Perth) and preliminary recovery results indicate that
oxide material may be recovered by normal gravity/CIL methods whereas the fresh material is refractory
to partially refractory and may be recovered by either Biological Oxidation (BIOX) or Pressure Oxidation
(POX) methods. Ongoing metallurgical test work is focussed on achieving the optimal operational flow
sheet for the fresh material.
The initial metallurgical results at Makosa are comparable to those reported from initial test work at the
Massawa deposit which is located 4km to the west and which is owned by Endeavour Mining. Following
exhaustive metallurgical testing the optimal laboratory flow sheet for Massawa achieved recoveries of
88% for fresh (refractory to partially refractory) using a BIOX processing route and 90% for oxide to
transitional.
Until a representative number of samples has been fully tested using optimal recovery techniques Thor
has adopted similar recovery factors used at Massawa.
This is considered appropriate for the current level of classification and understanding of the Mineral
Resource.
Environmental Factors
No impediments with respect to reserves, parks or other areas of significance have been identified on
the project area. The Douta exploration licence consists of a modified environment as a result of human
activities including harvesting forest flora and burning vegetation as part of sporadic and unregulated
historic artisanal mining activity. There are no settlements within the licence boundary.
Thor abide by the Senegal 2016 Mining Code which introduced an obligation for mining title-holders to
contribute annually to a local development fund in the amount of 0.5% of sales, minus annual fees. Under
the 2016 Code, mining projects require a prior environmental impact assessment, to be approved by the
Directorate of the Environment and Classified Establishments.
To gain initial environmental baseline information within the Douta exploration licence a dry season
ecology survey was undertaken in May 2021 by Senegal-based Synergie Afrique - a registered
environment consultancy in Senegal. The survey will form part of the overall Environment and Impact
Assessment ("EIA") which is expected to be completed in 18 months. It is planned to undertake a wet
season ecology survey in the near future when the ephemeral streams are running.
Figure 3: Cross Section through Makosa Tail
To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:
https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7003/104023_6e5fb3b1847e99a4_004full.jpg
Exploration Upside: Mansa Prospect Exploration Results
Geology
The Mansa Prospect is located 5km along strike to the northeast from Makosa. The exploratory RC
drilling programme comprised 31 holes totalling 2,405m and tested anomalous zones as defined by the
regional auger geochemical survey completed in 2020.
Significant intersections are listed in Table 4 and
located in Figure 4. Drill samples were analysed by ALS laboratories in Mali using the AA26 fire assay
method (50g charge).