Aya posts strongest intercept yet at Boumadine in Morocco

[Ben Graham]

Aya Gold & Silver (TSX: AYA) said new drilling at its Boumadine polymetallic project in Morocco yielded the strongest mineralized intercept so far while identifying a new high-grade parallel structure. Shares rose.

Hole BOU-MP25-087 cut 15 metres grading 3.31 grams gold per tonne, 1,900 grams silver, 4.8% zinc, 1.8% lead and 0.03% copper from 138 metres depth, Aya said Wednesday in a statement. That included 8.7 metres at 5.37 grams gold, 3,208 grams silver, 6.3% zinc, 2.8% lead and 0.05% copper.

“Both infill and step-out drilling at Boumadine completed to date support the potential for resource growth at the asset,” Scotia Capital mining analyst Ovais Habib said Wednesday in a note.

News of the drill results comes about three weeks after Aya said a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for Boumadine showed barely a year would be needed for the company to recoup its investment if gold prices remain elevated. Hole BOU-MP25-087 was drilled on the southern portion of the Boumadine main trend, outside the PEA pit shells, Aya said Wednesday.

Shares rise

Aya shares jumped 7.7% to C$15.91 Wednesday morning in Toronto, boosting the company’s market value to about $2.3 billion ($1.6 billion). The stock has traded between C$8.52 and C$19.68 in the past year.

Crews at Boumadine have drilled about 133,000 metres this year along the main trend, in the Tizi and Imariren zones and on other regional targets. Results received so far confirm the high-grade continuity of the main trend, which covers 5.4 km and remains open in all directions, Aya said. Tizi and Imariren also remain open in all directions.

An infill drill program is scheduled to take place over the next 24 months, Aya said. It will cover 360,000 metres with as many as 16 drill rigs.

Other highlights published Wednesday include hole BOU-RC25-026, which cut 6 metres grading 37.03 grams gold, 334 grams silver, 2.8% zinc, 1% lead and 0.2% copper from 50 metres downhole; and hole BOU-RC25-043, which cut 9 metres at 2.69 grams gold, 45 grams silver, 0.1% zinc, 0.1% lead and 0.1% copper from 152 metres depth.

New structure

Another hole, BOU-DD25-623 in the south, identified a new high-grade parallel structure with a long, continuous mineralized interval. It cut about 47 metres grading 0.94 grams gold, 399 grams silver, 1.4% zinc, 1.2% lead and 0.03% copper from about 183 metres downhole.

Follow-up drilling on the new structure – which holds the potential to positively impact the overall resource – is being planned, Aya said.

“Boumadine still has substantial upside to unlock,” CEO Benoit La Salle said in the statement. The new high-grade intervals “all point to a growing resource, larger ultimate pit extents and increasing scale.”

Aya, which owns 85% of Boumadine, envisions building six open pits and three underground mines over a projected mine life of 11.1 years. The company’s strategy is to maintain a processing throughput of 8,000 tonnes per day.

At spot gold prices of $4,000 an oz., Boumadine has an after-tax net present value of $3 billion, an internal rate of return of 77% and a payback period of 1.2 years, Aya said Nov. 4.

Sulphide veins

Boumadine’s main mineralization is typically 1 metre to 4 metres wide, with northwest-oriented sulphide lenses and veins that dip sharply eastward. The massive sulphide veins are mainly composed of pyrite, with variable proportions of sphalerite, galena, and chalcopyrite.

The project is located near the border with Algeria in Morocco’s Errachidia province, about 220 km east of the city of Ouarzazate. Aya’s land area covers 339 sq. km, with another 600 sq. km under exploration authorization.

Aya in February boosted the property’s indicated resource by 160% and the inferred resource by 24% over a 2024 report. Boumadine hosts 5.2 million indicated tonnes grading 91 grams silver, 2.78 grams gold, 2.8% zinc and 0.85% lead, the company said.

Inferred resources now total 29.2 million tonnes grading 82 grams silver, 2.63 grams gold, 2.11% zinc and 0.82% lead. Contained metal includes 76.8 million oz. silver, 2.4 million oz. gold, 615,000 tonnes zinc and 237,000 lead.