Côte d’Ivoire : Endeavour extends acreage on gold to 664km2 in Ity district

Endeavour Mining Corp., intermediate gold producer, has considerably increased, from 178km² to 664km2, its holding on gold in the Ity district in Côte d’Ivoire.

The TSX and OTCQX listed company on September 14 made this public, explaining that the tenements are within the preserved Toulepleu-Ity klippe belt, with 80km underexplored Birimian corridor on-trend.

Endeavour said it obtained on 100% ownership basis the exploration tenements Floleu (104km2) and Toulepleu (382km2) and re-obtained, on a 100% basis, its previously 55%-held Tiepleu tenement covering 153km2.

"We are extremely pleased to have secured what we consider to be one of West-Africa’s most underexplored areas in the Birimian belts,” Patrick Bouisset, Executive Vice-President Exploration and Growth of Endeavour, commented.

The new tenements, he said, will form an integral part of a long-term exploration strategy which is expected to be announced in the fourth quarter this year.

The company achieved, at the Ity gold mine which has grown to be nearly a 5-million-ounce endowment, a successful exploration.

The success is considered a “good indication of the potential to find more skarn or shear-zone type multi-million ounce deposits along the same trend”.

Endeavour Mining presents itself ideally positioned as the major pure West-African multi-operation gold mining company.

In the West-African region, it is operating five mines : Agbaou and Ity in Côte d’Ivoire, Karma in Burkina Faso, Tabakoto in Mali and Nzema Ghana.

The company is currently building, in Burkina Faso, Houndé gold project which is expected to commence production in the fourth quarter of 2017.

The project is potentially its flagship low-cost mine with an average annual production of 190koz at an AISC of US$709/oz over an initial 10-year mine life based on reserves.