Bagoé Gold Project Acquired by Perseus Mining

Perseus Mining Limited reports that the Scheme of Arrangement between Perseus and Exore Resources Limited (Exore) was successfully implemented on Friday, September 25^th, 2020, which allowed Perseus to acquire all the assets of Exore, such as a range of exploration properties located in northern Côte d’Ivoire.

This comprised PR 321 hosting the Bagoé Gold Project (Bagoé), situated about 70 km from the Sissingué Gold Mine of Perseus.

Exore declared an independently prepared maiden JORC 2012 compliant Mineral Resource estimate for Bagoé, on May 4^th, 2020. This Mineral Resource estimate was based on mineralization related to the Antoinette and Véronique prospects.

Exore published additional drilling results on July 28^th, 2020, and this time from the Juliette prospect that emphasizes the prospect for further resources to be defined along strike from the Antoinette prospect.

Perseus’s pre-acquisition assessment of Exore’s exploration work at Bagoé denoted potential for the economic exploitation of the Antoinette and Véronique prospects through open-pit mining, with either transferring ore to Sissingué for processing or processing in-situ.

At present, Perseus has planned to perform a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) to verify the financial and technical feasibility of a development concept for Bagoé. The proposed work includes the following.

• Reverse circulation (RC) drilling of each of the Juliette, Véronique, and Antoinette, prospects to produce enough information to allow the estimation of Measured and Indicated Resources and the conversion into Ore Reserves.
• The twinning of five RC holes at the Véronique prospect and four RC holes at the Antoinette prospect with core drilling to confirm the grades and widths of major Exore RC drill intercepts that fuel the presently defined optimization pit shells.
• Drilling of two HQ3 core holes at Véronique and four diamond HQ3 core holes at Antoinette to define geotechnical conditions in the locality of pit walls.
• Performing extra metallurgical test work to establish the performance characteristics of the ore via the Sissingué plant and variability testing
• Aquifer testing and drilling water boreholes to establish water chemistry, dewatering needs, and water supply at all the prospects.
• Multi-element assays of chosen mineralized intercepts for the characterization of ore chemistry to help the assessment of tailings geochemistry.
• Performing waste characterization analysis and acid-base accounting test work.
• Drone surveys to produce Digital Elevation Models and aerial photographs to be utilized for mapping and planning purposes.
• An analysis of the recommended ore transport routes.

At Bagoé, drilling is scheduled to begin in the second week of October 2020, and estimated to be completed in late December 2020. The target date for concluding the DFS work is June 2021.

In addition, work will be undertaken to prepare an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for Bagoé. CECAF—the local environmental consultants—have been hired to perform this work.

A field survey will be started shortly in the first week of October 2020 and the completely documented application for the ESIA is set to be filed in the March 2021 quarter.

Early-stage exploration activities will also be started in parallel with the ESIA and DFS work. The Initial exploration will target the prospective opportunities detected by Exore on the Bagoé tenement and will involve the following:

• The Antoinette-Juliette “gap” will be drilled to follow up earlier positive intercepts in RC and AC drilling beneath the transported cover.
• Drilling will be performed to follow up positive drill intercepts between Antoinette South and Antoinette
• Drilling will be performed to follow up positive intercepts on-strike extensions of the Véronique deposit and at regional prospects, like Brigette and Odette.

Corporate Update

After her recent appointment to the board of Newcrest Mining Limited, Sally-Anne Laymen has resigned as a non-executive director of Perseus effective from September 30^th, 2020. Perseus has started to look for an appropriate substitute for Sally-Anne and also for an additional female non-executive director, both of whom will be appointed to the board shortly.

Both appointments will bring the overall number of directors serving on the Perseus board to seven, six of whom will be non-executive and one will be the managing director, an executive. At this point, the board will also comprise two female directors which will be consistent with the best practices of the present governance.

With the completion of the Exore Scheme of Arrangement, Perseus is now very keen to move forward to prove the financial viability of a development concept for the Bagoé Gold Project and if possible, increase the size of the mineable Mineral Resource.

Mr Jeff Quartermaine, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Perseus Mining Limited

Quartermaine continued, “Given the outstanding performance to date of the plant of our nearby Sissingué Gold Mine, we are very pleased to potentially have the opportunity to access what we believe will be a material source of additional mill feed within trucking distance of the Sissingué mill.”

Our exploration team, that includes number of former employees of Exore, as well as our drilling contractor are mobilising to site and drilling is expected to be under way by mid-October 2020.

Mr Jeff Quartermaine, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Perseus Mining Limited

Quartermaine added, “There is a good deal of work to be done in terms of exploration drilling, evaluation and licencing before the development of Bagoé becomes a proven concept, but we are very confident of achieving a positive outcome and as a result, place Perseus in a position to continue to generate significant benefits for all of our stakeholders through our northern Ivorian operations.”

Finally, on behalf of our Chairman Sean Harvey and all fellow directors, we wish to thank Sally-Anne Layman for her service as a director of Perseus and wish her well with her career as a Non-Executive Director.

Mr Jeff Quartermaine, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Perseus Mining Limited

Source: https://perseusmining.com/