Firefinch granted Finkola mining licence, contiguous with 'Morila the Gorilla'

“The grant of the Permis d’Exploitation for Finkola is another important step in ramping up production at Morila," says MD Michael Anderson.

Firefinch Ltd (ASX:FFX)’s subsidiary Birimian Gold Mali SARL has been granted a Permis d’Exploitation, or mining licence, covering the Finkola exploration licence, which is contiguous with the company's licence covering the Morila gold operations in Mali.

The licence paves the way to start mining at the Beledjo-Koting Deposit, which contains 20,000 ounces of gold in a probable ore reserve.

It also enables prospects such as K2 and K3 to be added to the development pipeline.

Another important step

Firefinch managing director Michael Anderson, said: “The grant of the Permis d’Exploitation for Finkola is another important step in ramping up production at Morila.

“Beledjo gives us another ore source and importantly provides oxide ore for blending with fresh ore from the Morila Super Pit.

“The Permis d’Exploitation has been granted for a period of 12 years with renewals possible for 10 years.

“The mining licence also provides a development pipeline for other prospects within the Finkola licence.

Transfer of licence

The process to transfer the mining licence to a single purpose Malian company, as required by Malian legislation, will now begin.

This Malian company will initially be a 100%-owned subsidiary of Firefinch and will be a separate standalone company to Morila.

However, the State of Mali has a right to receive a 10% free carried interest, with an option to purchase an additional 10% at fair market value.

When formed, it will enter into arms-length commercial agreements with Morila to operate and manage the mining and haulage activities at Beledjo and process the mined ore on its behalf through to the production of doré.

Finkola licence

The Finkola licence 23 kilometres northwest of Firefinch’s 'Morila the Gorilla' gold mine contains the Beledjo-Koting gold deposit as well as the K2, K3 and other prospects.

Beledjo contains probable ore reserves of 20,000 ounces of gold (0.63 million tonnes at 0.98 g/t gold) within an indicated and inferred mineral resource of 30,000 ounces of gold (0.93 million tonnes at 1.01 g/t).

The grant of the mining licence allows Firefinch to add Beledjo into the mining schedule and commence preliminary site works.

A surface grade control program was recently completed and will be used to update the resource model prior to mining.

Importantly there has been no previous mining at Beledjo, meaning substantial quantities of oxide ore will become available for blending with fresh ore from the Morila Super Pit.

Further drilling planned

Recent drilling by Firefinch has delineated mineralisation at the K2 and K3 prospects, the most advanced prospects after Beledjo.

Both prospects are unmined with mineralisation present in oxide and fresh rock.

Further drilling is planned at both these prospects for 2022 with the aim to define mineral resources and assess the potential for these to contribute to future mill feed.

Other prospects within the licence will be advanced with surface geochemistry and aircore drilling.