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Etruscan's Agbaou Gold Project covers 939 km2, giving Etruscan control of the 40 kilometer strike length of the Agbaou Gold Belt in Côte d'Ivoire. Agbaou is an advanced stage gold deposit and one of the largest undeveloped gold resources in Côte d'Ivoire.
Location
Drilling at Agbaou August 2005 |
The Agbaou Gold Project is situated approximately 200 kilometers northwest of the port city of Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire. The Project is readily accessible by paved highway and is within 10 kilometers of the national power grid.
Ownership
The Agbaou permit was granted to Etruscan in November 2003. Etruscan will have an 85% interest in any mining company established to mine at Agbaou with the remaining 15% being held by the State of Côte d'Ivoire.
Agbaou Resource
An independent National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate was prepared by Coffey Mining in February 2008 and is summarized as follows:
| Agbaou Mineral Resource |
Cutoff
Grade |
Indicated Resources |
Inferred Resource |
| Tonnes |
Grade |
Ounces |
Tonnes |
Grade |
Ounces |
| 0.5 gpt |
16,600,00 |
1.90 |
1,015,000 |
5,100,000 |
1.67 |
272,000 |
| 1.0 gpt |
10,500,000 |
2.58 |
871,000 |
2,800,000 |
2.46 |
218,000 |
A feasibility study is presently underway with delivery scheduled for the third quarter of 2008 with production targeted for early 2010. Etruscan has assembled a feasibility team comprised of a number of internationally recognized consulting firms. The main consultants include MDM Engineering of South Africa, who will address the plant and infrastructure design and costing as well as the supervision of the metallurgical program which is being carried out at the Mintec laboratories, and Coffey Mining Pty Ltd. (formerly RSG Global) of Perth Australia who will complete the 43-101 compliant reserve calculation as well as the mine costing and design. Other consultants include Knight Piesold of South Africa (tailings dam design and hydrology), African Mining Consultants of Botswana (environmental study) and Golder and Associates of the United States (mine geo-tech).
Additional Exploration on the Agbaou Permit
Reconnaissance diamond drilling in proximity to the Agbaou gold deposit has identified three satellite discoveries within 600 meters of the Agbaou deposit. Reconnaissance drilling to the north of the main deposit has also intersected significant gold intersections. These results provide the potential to expand the known resources in the immediate vicinity of the gold plant at Agbaou.
Other Permits in Côte d'Ivoire
Côte d'Ivoire remains the most under-explored country in West Africa in spite of the fact that over 300,000 km2 is underlain by prospective Birimian and Archaean terranes. Many of the proven gold belts in Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana converge into Côte d'Ivoire and yet, apart from the 4.4 million ounce Tongon deposit slated for development by Randgold, there have been surprisingly few multi-million ounce discoveries. Etruscan recognized the opportunity to make strategic permit applications at a time when its competitors were not active in the country. Etruscan presently has applications pending for exploration permits coveringover 8,500 square kilometers in a number of other gold belts outside of Agbaou.
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