Montage Gold (TSX: MAU) has lifted the mineral resource at its Koné gold project in Côte d’Ivoire, with a cluster of higher grade satellite deposits driving most of the increase.
Highlights from the updated estimate, released Monday, include:
- Measured: 8.6 million tonnes at 0.83 g/t gold, containing 229,000 ounces
- Indicated: 244 million tonnes grading 0.80 g/t gold, containing 6.06 million ounces
- Inferred: 93 million tonnes grading 0.68 g/t gold, containing 2.03 million ounces
That adds 1.42 million ounces to the measured and indicated category and 1.62 million ounces to the inferred category against the basis used in the company’s 2024 updated feasibility study, with grades up 27% and 36% respectively.
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The satellite deposits flanking the main Koné orebody account for most of that growth. Measured and indicated satellite resources climbed to 1.7 million ounces at 1.51 g/t gold, while inferred satellite resources reached 766,000 ounces at 1.34 g/t gold, up from nil.
Montage has now outlined 12 deposits across the project, against two at the time of the feasibility study, and has intercepted mineralization at 25 targets with more than 20 still to be drilled.
The estimate rests on roughly 330,000 metres of drilling completed since the 2024 study, on top of 118,525 metres logged before it. A 90,000 metre programme for this year is underway, and the company expects additional resource updates over the coming months.
Chief Executive Officer Martino De Ciccio framed the result against a target set in October 2024 of delineating at least 1 million ounces of material grading more than 50% above the Koné deposit. The company was “very pleased to have already significantly exceeded this target,” he said.
Construction at Koné remains on budget and ahead of schedule, with first gold pour targeted for late in the fourth quarter of 2026 through the project’s oxide circuit. The hard rock comminution circuit is slated for completion in the second quarter of 2027.
The feasibility study pegged Koné at a 16-year mine life, with annual output above 300,000 ounces across its first eight years.
Montage Gold last traded at $15.92 on the TSX.
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