Kefi Gold and Copper plc has provided an update in respect of the Company's activities in Saudi Arabia. Kefi's Saudi Arabian portfolio is held through its 13% shareholding in Gold and Minerals SLA (GMCO), the Company's joint venture created with Abdul Rahman Saad Al Rashid and Sons Company Limited (ARTAR). GMCO provides Kefi with exposure to one of the most prospective and rapidly developing mining jurisdictions globally, within the Arabian Nubian Shield.
To-date GMCO has made two discoveries and defined a JORC-compliant resource base of 3.8Moz Au eq. A total of 16 gold and base metal exploration licences have been secured so far for GMCO, which has also recently formed a joint venture over additional areas with Hancock Prospecting and is formalizing another joint venture with AJ Lan Bros. Jibal Qutman Gold Project has been finalising its Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for staged development of its 900,000 ounce gold JORC-compliant resource, similar in physical scale to Tulu Kapi, but lower in grade and strip ratio.
The DFS is currently under third party review for GMCO Board consideration and refinement of strategy and plans over coming months. A Mining Licence Application has been lodged. GMCO is advancing the relevant workstreams to address its Final Investment Decision (FID) on the Project.
At Hawiah, current resources for just the main Hawiah deposit stand at 36.2Mt, with estimated contained copper of 297,000 tonnes, 745,000 oz of gold, 11.6 Moz of silver and 310,000 tonnes of zinc. The resource potential at Hawiah has been expanded with the award of the Umm Hijlan Exploration Licence which has doubled the strike length of the Hawiah mineralised system currently under development study. GMCO's new joint venture with Hancock Prospecting has secured the highly prospective Al Hajar North mineralised belt, which is parallel with and analogous to the Wadi Bidah Minerals District (Wadi Bidah) which hosts Hawiah. Areas not previously selected by GMCO subsequently being pegged by a joint venture between Ivanhoe Electric and Ma'aden.
