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we picked up data, we did our analysis, and none of that cost very facilitate that transition from explorer to producer, the company has
much. started making key appointments, including the addition of former
“We assessed a number of areas across West Africa and we sent Centamin plc chief executive Andrew Pardey to the board.
most of them back to the keeper before we finally ended up at the “Having Andrew on board is going to be very important as we take
Bankan project where all the stars aligned, where the ground was the next steps towards feasibility studies and development because
available and the land tenure system was transparent and efficient, he has done it all before, and he knows Guinea well,” Roberts said.
where the model worked and where we’ve now made a fantastic “We really have started that transition from being a very small
discovery.” company that had to be agile and spend as little money as possible
The Bankan resource is comprised of two greenfields discoveries at to advance the company towards success, to a company that’s
NE Bankan (65.6mt @ 1.57 g/t gold for 3.3 moz) and Bankan Creek going to turn into a reasonably significant, albeit single mine gold
(7.2mt @ 1.56 g/t gold for 331,000oz). No drilling had previously been producer to begin with.
undertaken on the 356sq km property prior to Predictive’s arrival “The foundations are set for us to become a significant gold
three years ago. producer, as long as we’re able to retain control of the company,
In the lead-up to September’s maiden resource announcement, which is certainly our intention. We want to be gold miners.”
Predictive reported a series of step-out diamond drilling results which Predictive only needs to look across the West African borders for
pointed to the deposit growing at depth. These included a project- recent development paths to potentially emulate. Fellow ASX-listed
explorer Tietto Minerals Ltd recently raised the funds required to
begin construction of its Abujar gold project in Cote d’Ivoire, while
newly crowned GMJ Miner of the Year West African Resources Ltd
has enjoyed a stellar start to life as a producer.
“It just shows it’s eminently doable,” Roberts said. “If others can do
it, then so can we. The critical thing is having the right management
team in place to deliver and we’re obviously working towards that.”
Roberts promised more impressive drilling results would flow from
Bankan over the coming months ahead of a resource update and
a PFS. Predictive’s exploration campaigns in 2022 are likely to be
Principal geologist Aimé Nganare joined the team ahead of the divided between finding more gold at depth and infilling the existing
company’s venture into Guinea in 2018 resource.
It is hard to see Predictive’s commitment to greenfields exploration
best hit of 44m @ 8 g/t gold from 265m (including 17m @ 18.1 g/t ever disappearing from the business strategy. History will certainly
from 273m) and another stunning intersection of 49.7m @ 11.7 g/t show the company’s perseverance and dedication to the geological
gold from 301m (including 17m @ 31.9 g/t from 313m, including 7m craft delivered the ultimate reward.
@ 50.3 g/t from 322m). “If there’s anything that’s important about the Predictive Discovery
Those results proved to be the ultimate kicker in sizing up the maiden story it’s that we persisted with the same approach,” Roberts said.
resource for Bankan to 3.65 moz, a total which even caught Roberts “We stayed technical, we didn’t go and just pick up other people’s
by surprise. used projects. We made some discoveries along the way doing
exactly that and then eventually we ended up with a big success
“If you’d asked me even three months before what I thought the
where no one had drilled before.”
resource was going to be, I didn’t think it was going to be that big, so
in that sense I was aligned with the commentators,” he said. “The foundations are set for us to become a significant gold
producer, as long as we’re able to retain control of the company,
“Apart from the size of the resource, it’s the higher-grade core and
which is certainly our intention. We want to be gold miners.”
the fact that the high grade is in the bottom of NE Bankan which has
given it this scale. When you actually put it all together, the orebody Bankan appeared on the 2021 NewGenGold programme and
has very high continuity which makes for a very robust mining conference organiser Keith Yates shares Roberts’ confidence the
scenario, almost irrespective of the gold price. project will soon become a mine.
“Once this mine starts, it’s hard to see anything stopping it. You “Looking at the resource that has dimensions and grade, it is
can’t say that about a lot of discoveries. If the gold price falls, cut-off very promising for development,” Yates told GMJ. “I’m inclined to
grade needs to be lifted to keep a mine profitable. But, often as you believe that if everything falls into place Bankan will witness a rapid
lift the cut-off grade, the deposit falls to bits and that happens when development like West African Resources [Ltd].”
continuity is not there. But in this case, it doesn’t look like that; it is very Yates said the discovery was exciting because of its legitimate
continuous and looks really, really robust. greenfields credentials.
“This becomes clear when the cut-off grade is lifted to 1 g/t; we still “It was found in genuinely unexplored terrain,” he said. “There had
have 2.8 moz @ 2.3 g/t contained in a single open pit with quite a been some artisanal workings but modern exploration had missed
modest strip ratio. Globally, for any new discovery, that’s an out of it altogether. That is unusual but you do see it from time to time in
the box result.” West Africa. They went about their job systematically and were able
Predictive is now focused on developing Bankan into an operation to rapidly move from securing the ground to conducting soils, auger
of significant size in comparison to existing mines in Guinea. To and aircore and it has paid off.”

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