ASX-listed Troy Resources has tabled a maiden ore reserve for the Smarts underground project at its 100%-owned Karouni operation in central Guyana. The company sees the 89,400-ounce reserve supporting production for at least 2.5 years while it explores for potential extensions.
Mineralisation is said to remain open below the calculated reserve of 1,082,000 tonnes grading 2.6 grams per tonne gold, which sits below Troy’s Smarts open-pits at Karouni, about 170km south-west of the Guyana capital, Georgetown.
The Smarts and Hicks open pits at Karouni have already produced more than 150,000 ounces of gold since 2017. A higher-grade zone in the new underground reserve is located directly beneath the Smarts 3 pit with the second zone, the “bulk zone”, beneath the Smarts 2 area. The bulk zone is the focus of an upcoming a geotechnical report that will feature an assessment of different mining methods.
Troy completed neary 5,000m of infill drilling at Smarts in 2020 early this year to lift confidence in its resource. Some spectacular intercepts at depths below 200m included 5m grading 14.14 grams per tonne gold and 3m at 9.92g/t. All results were included in the underground ore reserve calculation undertaken by Auralia Mining Consultants.
Troy said the underground deposit had a high-grade upper zone of 160,000t at 3.9g/t for 19,900 ounces and a second zone of 729,000t at 2.3g/t gold for 54,100 ounces. An additional 193,000t at 2.5g/t for 15,400 ounces is expected to be extracted from ore drives.
Troy management says its economic assessment of the Smarts underground deposit has it producing US$137 million of revenue and $47 million net cashflow over an initial 2.5 year mine life.
Troy is moving ahead briskly with project development work. Three additional diamond drill holes are required to position the decline at depth and one of these has already been completed. Ongoing geotechnical work may assist in converting more ounces from the mineral resource category into the ore reserve category.
Management says the infill drilling confirmed Smarts mineralisation remained open at depth.
Troy Managing Director Ken Nilsson said: “Once underground I believe that exploration and infill drilling will identify additional economic mineralisation at depth. Incorporating the new geotechnical data into the ore reserve calculation may also add ounces.”
The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission has already provided the company with approval for an underground mine development, subject to ongoing submission and review of plans and reports. Troy is in the process of producing outstanding documentation for Guyana’s first underground mine.
Troy is sitting on 3000 hectares of ground within the Karouni Basin on the highly prospective Guiana Shield. The geological setting for gold mineralisation is greenstone-hosted shear zones, similar to West African Birimian and Western Australian Yilgarn deposits. Troy’s recently acquired Potaro prospect is located along the regional shear zone, the Makaba Kuribrong Shear Zone and management says the shear zone is well endowed, hosting several multi-million-ounce gold deposits such as Newmont Mining’s Merian and IAMGOLD’s Rosebel deposits.
The potential is such that global gold major Barrick Gold Corporation recently tipped in US$1.2 million for a 4.9 per cent stake in Troy and will have Potaro as its primary exploration focus.
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By Matt Birney
