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UK-based gold and copper exploration and development company KEFI, which focuses on Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia, announced on Tuesday the award of five additional exploration licenses focussing on gold through the Company’s Gold and Minerals Limited (GMCO) joint venture in Saudi Arabia.
GMCO is owned 30 percent by KEFI and 70 percent by its partner Abdul Rahman Saad Al Rashid and Sons (ARTAR).
KEFI said in a press statement that:
• Five additional exploration licences Wadi Na’afa, Al Awja, Abu Salal North, Umm Al Khabath and Jabal Selm have been awarded on an initial five-year term
• The Exploration Licences host sites of ancient mineral mining, within prospective mineral belts
• Abu Salal North and Umm Al Khabath VMS [Volcanic Massive Sulphide] prospects lie within the Wadi Bidah Mineral Belt south of the Company’s Hawiah project
• Wadi Na’afa and Al Awja lie within the underexplored and only recently accessible Lorelon gold-silver-copper mineral belt, located within the southwestern portion of the Arabian Shield
•Jabal Selm is a quartz vein hosted gold prospect within the Al Miyah Mineral District
The statement said GMCO regional exploration team have begun comprehensive mapping and sampling campaigns over these new licences.
“The outcomes of this fieldwork will be to ground-truth historical data, assess the surface grade limits of mineralisation and describe the structural framework controlling mineralisation. These programmes will then build into progressively advanced exploration works, including geophysics and trenching,” the statement noted.
Harry Anagnostaras-Adams, Executive Chairman of KEFI, commented:
“With our rapidly advancing gold projects in Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia, where we are heading for steady-state production from 2025, we are delighted to have been awarded these five further exploration licences in Saudi Arabia to further broaden the KEFI GMCO portfolio.
“The award of these five additional exploration licences provides significant future potential in a country expected to have relatively short approval, financing and development schedules, given there is no need to resettle communities, less restrictive security protocols and established capital markets and domestic funding options.
“The award of these licenses brings the GMCO land holding in Saudi Arabia to over 1,035 square kilometres, covering some of what we believe to be the most prospective and underexplored ground for polymetallic VMS and orogenic gold deposits in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We will shortly report a stand-alone overview of this world-class exploration portfolio. Its status and our plans, and we look forward to reporting on our further progress in due course.”
(Writing by Marwa Abo Almajd; Editing by Anoop Menon)
