Modern Mining September 2022

GOLD

Predictive Discovery’s Bankan Gold in the starting block With an eye to becoming a gold producer in the next three years, gold explorer Predictive Discovery is ramping up its exploration and baseline environmental studies at its flagship Bankan Gold Project, located close to Kouroussa, 550 kms east of Conakry, Guinea’s capital city. By Nelendhre Moodley .

CEO Andrew Pardey.

T he Australian-listed junior miner is focused on firming up its 4,2-million ounce Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) at the Bankan Gold Project, with a clear strategy of moving from explorer to gold producer in the near future. According to MD Andrew Pardey, Bankan’s updated mineral resource is only the beginning of the discovery journey. The company is aggressively exploring the broader Bankan permit, targeting new gold discoveries in new high-grade areas. Predictive Discovery’s 356 km² Bankan project, located within Guinea’s Siguiri Basin, consists of two key deposits – NE Bankan and Bankan Creek – and a number of highly prospective deposits within the broader Bankan permit which have, to date, deliv ered highly encouraging results. The Siguiri Basin hosts Nordgold’s Lefa mine, one of the country’s largest gold producers; AngloGold Ashanti’s Siguri gold mine; Hummingbird Resources’ Kouroussa Gold mine and Sycamore Mining’s Kiniéro Gold Project. Recent drilling efforts on the Bankan project have yielded an updated mineral resource estimate of an

inferred resource of 79,5-million tonnes at 1,63 grams per tonne of gold for 4,2-million ounces of gold. The latest MRE focused purely on the NE Bankan deposit, which saw an increase of 18% to 3.9 m ounces of gold (inferred), from 72,3-million tonnes at 1,65 g/t. The adjacent deposit, Bankan Creek, had no further drilling and remained at 331,000 ounces from 7,2-million tonnes at 1,43 g/t, bringing the global resource at Bankan to 4.2m oz Au from 79.5 million tonnes at 1.65 gpt. “The recent drilling initiative has increased the resource by almost 600,000 ounces, taking the project to a 4,2 moz asset and lifting the grade from 1,55 g/t to 1,65 g/t. However, the upgrade excludes PDI’s deepest diamond hole at the project, which lies outside the mineral resource area and has the poten tial to drive further resource growth,” says Pardey. While the central portion of the NE Bankan gold deposit contains the most gold and higher-grade zones occurring in the footwall of the shear zone within the felsic intrusive, Bankan Creek, a satellite deposit located 3 km from NE Bankan, has yet to be fully explored, both at depth and along strike with

Core shed and refilling station.

18  MODERN MINING  September 2022