Shanta Gold has tapped the resource estimation powers of Micromine to confirm the presence of a gold reserve at its Singida project, in central Tanzania, according to the mining software provider.

MICROMINE’s exploration and mine design solution, Micromine, which offers integrated tools for modelling, estimation, design, optimisation and scheduling, was used to validate Singida’s 243,000 oz gold deposit, it said.

AIM-listed gold producer Shanta Gold has defined ore resources on the New Luika and Singida projects, in Tanzania.

The New Luika gold mine commenced production in 2012 and produced 874,506 oz in 2019. A mining licence was granted for Singida in 2012, with drilling results from an exploration program conducted in 2016 and a feasibility study indicating the project had nine orebodies, within a 5 km radius, with a combined resource of 858,000 oz of gold. It is estimated production will average 26,000 oz/y for an initial six-year period.

In May 2020, a revised reserve estimate was declared, enabling Shanta Gold to move towards construction and first production at Singida, confident in the possibility of a number of high-grade open pits, MICROMINE said.

Shanta Gold used Micromine to interrogate exploration drilling data to establish and validate the revised estimate, the company explained, with an independent validation process run for each core data log sheet using the software.

“Where there were queries, a report file was created, exported to Excel and sent to the personnel responsible for data capturing to correct the original information,” MICROMINE explained. “Once data confirmation of the updates was received, all databases were refreshed and the validation process repeated in Micromine, with the use of form sets, until all data had been validated.”

Lee Bothma, MICROMINE Africa Sales Manager, said: “Shanta Gold has trusted Micromine to validate data at its flagship New Luika gold mine so it was an obvious choice to use at Singida. Micromine’s Resource Estimation functionality enables a precise and detailed analysis of the resource based on early exploration data.

“Over the years, Shanta Gold has used Micromine’s tools to model and estimate open-pit ore reserves at New Luika. The ability to validate the presence of additional mineralisation has significantly extended the life of mine.”

A JORC-compliant reserve of 2.51 Mt, grading 3 g/t and containing 243,000 oz of gold at a cutoff grade of 1 g/t was declared for Singida in May 2020. Of the reserve estimate, 91% of the contained gold is within 120 m of the surface, highlighting the potential for reserve expansion, MICROMINE said.

The reserve represents a 50% conversion of the project’s independently-verified measured and indicated resource and an updated mine plan will incorporate the new reserve estimate, the company explained.

Singida’s JORC-complaint mineral resource estimate (MRE) was also re-calculated and independently verified by Pivot Mining Consultants. The total MRE is 11.8 Mt, grading 2.38 g/t and containing 904,000 oz of gold, using a cutoff grade of 1.0 g/t. This includes a 17% increase in measured and indicated resources, totalling 5.7 Mt, grading 2.66 g/t and containing 484,000 oz of gold.