Firefinch’s high-grade gold hits at Viper fuel Morila mine plans

Firefinch’s near-term mining plans at its Morila project in Mali are poised to benefit from high-grade gold hits that have expanded the scale of the Viper deposit.

Notable results from the recent infill and extensional reverse circulation drilling include:

6m grading 11.34 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 74m including 2m at 29.2g/t gold; and
9m at 6.78g/t gold from 54m including 1m at 36.9g/t gold.

Additionally, Firefinch (ASX:FFX) has also delineated surface mineralisation in the southern part of the deposit.

“These are outstanding results. The scale of the mineralised system at Viper continues to grow with each drillhole,” managing director Dr Michael Anderson said.

“The delineation of surface mineralisation in the southern part of the deposit will provide another source of early oxide feed as we ramp up the Morila plant.

“The high-grade zones under the pit also suggest that Viper can potentially make a more significant contribution to our near-term mining schedule.”

Commencement of mining at Viper has been expedited with early works already underway and mining expected to begin in the coming weeks.

Long Section showing drilling results at Viper. Pic: Supplied

Viper deposit

Viper is located about 27km northwest of Morila and is accessed by an established haul road.

Its mineralised system is about 1,600m long with the main domain interpreted to be continuous over the whole strike extent of the deposit. Several discontinuous footwall and hanging wall splays will be better defined by grade control drilling to provide additional feed to the plant.

Mining at Viper was completed in 2018-2019 with 0.81 million tonnes mined at 1.19 g/t gold to produce 31,000 ounces of gold.

In February, Firefinch completed a 43-hole RC program that confirmed the continuity of mineralisation below the existing open pit.

Follow-up drilling has now been completed to infill the better results from the February program, as well as test extensions to the south and at depth, where mineralisation remained open.

Results will be included in a revised resource estimate for the deposit, which will then be included into an update of the Morila Life of Mine plan.

Further drilling will test mineralisation down-dip and down-plunge of these recent intersections, while an infill program will provide initial grade control data for the near surface mineralisation.

This article was developed in collaboration with Firefinch, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.