Montage Gold boosts resource at Koné project in Côte d’Ivoire

[Ben Graham]

Canadian mine developer Montage Gold (TSX: MAU) says an exploration update for its Koné project in Côte d’Ivoire shows increases in both indicated and inferred resources since the start of the year.

Koné is now estimated to hold 269 million indicated tonnes grading 0.63 gram gold per tonne for contained metal of 5.49 million oz., a 13% increase from the 2024 feasibility study, Montage said Thursday. Inferred resources stand at 43 million tonnes grading 0.51 gram for contained metal of 704,000 oz., 76% more than previously estimated.

“The latest results demonstrate the prospectivity of the Koné land package, with significant progress already made in adding to the resource inventory in only one year of drilling,” Scotia Capital mining analyst Ovais Habib said Thursday in a note.

Vancouver-based Montage had earlier this year set itself a goal of finding more than 1 million oz. in measured and indicated resources on the property at a grade of at least 1 gram gold before targeted production begins in 2027. Thursday’s update shows that “the company is well on track to achieve that target, particularly if more resources are expected in due course,” BMO Capital Markets mining analyst Raj Ray said in a note.

New drilling

Montage is spending about $18 million on exploration at Koné this year, up from about $13 million last year, CEO Martino De Ciccio told The Northern Miner Thursday in an interview. Next year’s exploration budget should be similar to this year’s, he added.

Crews this year have drilled 87,595 metres of a planned 120,000 metre drill program at Koné – which was increased from the original 90,000 metre target. New drilling has mainly focused on the Gbongogo–Koroutou and Sissédougou trends. The latter, which extends over 10 km in strike length and hosts the ANV deposit, is emerging as a “highly prospective” area, Montage said.

Montage envisages a 16-year mine life for Koné, with annual production averaging 301,000 oz. over the first eight years. The 2024 feasibility study calculated the project would have an after-tax net present value of $3.1 billion if gold prices averaged $3,000 an ounce.

Project construction is progressing “rapidly” while remaining on budget and on schedule, Montage said.

About half of the capital budget, or $428 million, has been spent and many critical infrastructure milestones have been completed, according to an investor presentation posted on the company’s website. 

52 targets

Workers have identified 52 exploration targets across seven mineralized trends on Koné’s 1,318-sq.-km, one of the largest sites in West Africa. Mineralization has been confirmed at all 23 targets drill-tested so far.

Nine deposits have been identified on the property. Satellite deposits at Koné are estimated to hold 24 million indicated tonnes grading 1.29 grams gold for contained metal of 996,000 indicated oz. and 5.5 million inferred tonnes at 1.09 grams gold for 194,000 oz. of contained metal, the company said Thursday. Further updates across existing and new deposits will be published in the coming months.

“All the targets we have tested have come back with good intercepts,” De Ciccio said in the interview. “What it does is confirm our thesis that there is a lot of exploration potential here that we think adds higher grade satellite deposits to the mine plan from the onset of production.”

Montage also has another 458 sq. km of additional adjacent exploration properties under permit application. That would increase the company’s land package to 1,776 sq. km.

Shares of the company rose 1.3% to C$6.84 Thursday morning in Toronto, valuing the company at about C$2.5 billion ($1.8 billion).