Endeavour Mining finds potential new flagship gold project in West Africa

Endeavour Mining (TSX: EDV; LSE: EDV) said Monday it had made a major greenfield gold discovery in Côte d’Ivoire, which has the potential to become a new flagship asset for the company.

The miner, which has several gold operations and projects in West Africa, has outlined a hefty initial resource at the Assafou target on its 100%-owned Tanda-Iguela property.

Indicated resources for Assafou sit at 14.9 million tonnes at 2.33 grams gold per tonne for 1.1 million ounces. A further 32.9 million inferred tonnes grading 1.8 grams gold totals 1.9 million oz. of gold.

“It ranks as one of the most significant discoveries made in West Africa over the last decade and shows potential to be another flagship asset for the company,” chief executive Sébastien de Montessus said in a release.

The site has a low discovery cost of less than US$10 for every indicated ounce of gold discovered and preliminary tests show high gold recovery rates exceeding 95%, he noted.

The company said the new discovery and exploration success across its portfolio helps it to say on track to achieve a discovering target of between 15 to 20 million oz. for the five-year period ending in 2025.

The announcement comes only a month after it announced the beginning of construction at its 2.7-million-ounce Lafigué project, also in Côte d’Ivoire.

Endeavour has a large footprint in Burkina Faso, where it has been subject to a number of terrorist attacks in the past three years.

This year, the company expects to churn out between 1.3 million and 1.4 million oz. of gold at all-in sustaining costs of US$880 to US$930 per ounce.