JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Gold exploration and development company Katoro Gold’s infill drilling programme at its Imweru gold project, in Tanzania, is progressing significantly better than planned and is currently ahead of schedule and below budget.
Owing to the strong drill performance and significant cost savings made in the last two weeks, Katoro has been able to change and expand the scope of the original Imweru development plan, it revealed on Wednesday.
The company now has the budget to commission the full environmental- and social-impact study (Esia) without having to raise additional funds.
Aim-listed Katoro can now also expand the original drill programme to 31 drill holes, instead of the originally planned ten.
"We are extremely pleased with progress on the Imweru development programme. This, combined with the vast in-country experience of the technical teams, has put the company in a strong position to extract substantially more value out of the approved work programme than initially expected," executive chairperson Louis Coetzee said in a statement.
The full complement of metallurgical samples required for the Imweru feasibility study are being exported to South Africa for analysis.
“These are the first geological samples to be exported under the new mining rules and, while it is a more cumbersome process, no significant delays have been encountered to date nor are there any anticipated at this stage,” he said.