REG - Cora Gold Limited - Year-End Shareholder Letter

Cora GoldAnnouncement

29/12/2021 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20211229:nRSc8627Wa&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 8627W  Cora Gold Limited  29 December 2021

Cora Gold Limited / EPIC: CORA.L / Market: AIM / Sector: Mining

29 December 2021

Cora Gold Limited ('Cora' or 'the Company')

Year-end Shareholder Letter

 

Cora Gold Limited, the West African focused gold company, is pleased to
announce that a Shareholder Letter has been uploaded to the Company's website
at www.coragold.com (http://www.coragold.com) .  The letter, a review of the
major developments for the Company during 2021 and the outlook for 2022, can
also be found below or by clicking here
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/8627W_1-2021-12-28.pdf
(http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/8627W_1-2021-12-28.pdf) .

 

 

Dear Shareholders,

 

This has been an excellent year in Cora's development as we rapidly advance
towards our transition from explorer to developer. A number of key milestones
were met during the course of 2021, which have been

summarised below. I have our highly experienced and dedicated team to thank
for this progress and I am delighted to see the results of their tireless
efforts come to fruition in such a positive way. With a number of field
programmes ongoing, we plan on maintaining forward momentum into next year,
which is due to be even busier as we advance our flagship Sanankoro Gold
Project ('Sanankoro' or the 'Project') towards

construction with the DFS due for completion in H1 2022.

 

2021 Key Milestones

The majority of 2021 has been largely focused on progressing Sanankoro. At the
start of the year, a new series of gold discoveries from satellite imagery and
surface prospecting programmes identified new surface workings at Selin, the
largest deposit at the Project. Following this, the largest single drilling
programme undertaken at Sanankoro commenced, which continued to advance during
Q2 and Q3.

 

·    In March, Cora awarded an initial 22,000m contract to Capital
Drilling Mali SARL for reverse circulation ('RC') and diamond core ('DC')
drilling at Sanankoro and began drilling with an expectation to drill up to
35,000m by July 2021, representing almost double of the total drilling on the
permit over the previous two years. The drill programme had a dual focus of
targeting resource growth as well as infill drilling to convert existing
Inferred resources to Indicated.

 

·    In April, Cora received the maiden drill results from the campaign
which were extremely encouraging and included 34m @ 1.98 grams per tonne
('g/t') gold ('Au') from 13m depth and 52m @ 1.78 g/t Au from 20m depth,
highlighting the significant potential of Selin.

 

·    By July, the sixth set of drill results from the drilling campaign at
Sanankoro had been received, which returned the most significant drill hole
that Cora has ever drilled of 19m @ 31.56 g/t Au, offering greater upside to
the Project and confirming its potential to become a world class deposit.

 

·    In October, the drilling programme, which returned consistently
impressive results at a high grade in general shallow oxide ore with 15 holes
of +100 gramme metre, was concluded for a total of c.43,000m. Additional depth
of oxidisation to greater than 190m vertical depth pointed at the potential
positive implications for future mining of the Project.

 

·    In November, an updated Mineral Resource Estimate ('MRE') increased
total resources of the Project by +200% from the maiden MRE from December
2019.

 

As per the last bullet point above, the results from the drilling campaign
were utilised as the foundation for an updated MRE, which was prepared by CSA
Global (UK) Ltd ('CSA Global'). This focused on mineral resource growth and
upgrading the existing mineral resources to higher confidence categories, in
line with the goals of the campaign. The results returned a pit constrained
MRE of 21.9 million tonnes at 1.15 g/t Au for a total of 809.3 thousand ounces
(koz) of Au. This represented a +200% increase in total ounces from the maiden
MRE from December 2019 with an excellent conversion from Inferred to Indicated
mineral resource. The updated MRE far surpassed expectations and was a major
step forward for Cora, delivering open pit-able, free-digging oxide-focussed
ounces for the on-going DFS, which is due for completion in H1 2022.

 

Funding

Sanankoro's future development is well supported by the new US$25m Mandate and
Term Sheet ('Term Sheet') with Lionhead Capital Advisors Proprietary Limited
('Lionhead'), which was agreed in September. This replaced and expanded on our
previously held Term Sheet with Lionhead for US$21m, demonstrating its
continued support and confidence in the Project. In light of the very positive
drilling results at Sanankoro, we are now looking towards an increased focus
on a conventional gravity/carbon in leach ('CIL') processing route, which will
allow for higher recoveries and enable the development of a larger and longer
life gold mine with improved economics. With this in mind, the Term Sheet
significantly de-risks Sanankoro and future project financing as we look to
deliver a DFS in H1 2022.

 

In addition to the Term Sheet, Cora ended the year on a strong note
financially having raised £4.25m through a placing and subscription of
42,500,000 new ordinary shares in December. This further demonstrates the
strong support from our existing shareholders and new investors during this
exciting period for us.

 

Definitive Feasibility Study ('DFS')

The next step in Sanankoro's development is the DFS, which is already
progressing at pace and is on schedule to be delivered in H1 2022. Reinforced
by the recently updated MRE, the DFS has a strong foundation, supporting
Cora's strategy to deliver open pit-able free digging oxide focussed ounces
for the DFS.

 

A team of highly experienced consultants and contractors, led by SENET out of
South Africa, were appointed in September to run the DFS. Since then, all of
the consultants and contractors have completed site visits and many work
streams have already been successfully advanced and a number have been
completed. Test work samples are being analysed, geophysics work has been
completed, drilling programmes are underway, and site layout has been
developed to include a process plant and Tailings Storage Facility locations.

 

The DFS is aimed at outlining the optimum route for Sanankoro's development
into a new gold mine, building on its strong fundamentals as highlighted in
2020's Scoping Study.

 

Other Permits

Although Sanankoro is indeed our key asset which we have largely focused our
efforts on this year, our other permits have made some encouraging progress.
Particularly, the Yanfolila Project Area ('Yanfolila'), which encompasses five
permits covering 372km(2) on the Yanfolila Gold Belt in southern Mali and is
located 8km from Hummingbird Resource Plc's (AIM:HUM) Yanfolila Gold Mine, saw
some promising advancements this year.

 

Drill results were received at the start of the year from the Tagan Permit,
which is a target area within Yanfolila Gold Belt, following up from a small
rotary air blast programme drilled in 2019 and included 9m @ 1.23g/t Au and
24m @ 0.51 g/t Au.

 

Cora entered into a Joint Venture Agreement over the Farani Permit, a 62 sq km
area adjacent to the Tagan Permit and lies within Yanfolila with active
exploration underway. We will earn up to 95% interest over the next six years
and, more importantly, this strengthens Cora's footprint in southern Mali as a
leading exploration permit holder.

 

Outlook for 2022

Just as this year was, we expect 2022 to be incredibly busy for Cora as we
move forward with Sanankoro's progression towards construction. To this end,
we expect the DFS to be finalised by the end of H1 2022, after which the
Company will look to complete both the permitting and financing of the Project
so that we are able to move as swiftly as possible towards construction.

 

This year has seen Cora go from strength to strength and we strongly believe
that 2022 will continue on this trend as we enter into an exciting period for
the Company. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our
shareholders for their continued support of Cora during this exciting period
for us and wish you all a happy New Year.

 

Bert Monro

CEO

 

**ENDS**

 

For further information, please visit http://www.coragold.com
(http://www.coragold.com/) or contact:

 

 Bert Monro           Cora Gold Limited          info@coragold.com (mailto:info@coragold.com)

 Craig Banfield
 Christopher Raggett  finnCap Ltd                +44 (0) 20 7220 0500

 Charlie Beeson       Nomad & Joint Broker
 Andy Thacker         Turner Pope Investments    +44 (0) 20 3657 0050

 James Pope           Joint Broker
 Susie Geliher        St Brides Partners         cora@stbridespartners.co.uk (mailto:cora@stbridespartners.co.uk)

 Selina Lovell        Financial PR

 

Notes

Cora Gold is an emerging West African gold developer with three principal
de-risked project areas within two known gold belts in Mali and Senegal
covering over +1,100 sq km.  Led by a team with a proven track record in
making multi-million-ounce gold discoveries that have been developed into
operating mines, its primary focus is on developing the Sanankoro Gold Project
in the Yanfolila Gold Belt, Southern Mali, where Cora hopes to commence
construction of an open pit oxide focussed gold mine in 2022.  A Scoping
Study published in January 2020 on Sanankoro showed an 107% IRR at a US$1,500
gold price, while an updated JORC-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate
delivered in November 2021 showed a pit constrained MRE of 21.9 million tonnes
at 1.15 grams per tonne gold for a total of 809.3 thousand ounces of gold.
A Definitive Feasibility Study is expected to be published in H2 2022.

 

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  DOCFFFSLFILTFIL