PROGRESS AT MONTAGE GOLD’ S KONÉ PROJECT
PROJECTS AND EXPLORATION •
Image by Natanaelginting on Freepik
PROGRESS AT MONTAGE GOLD’ S KONÉ PROJECT
Location: Abidjan, Côte d’ Ivoire Phase: Exploration Resource: Gold
On 6 October 2025, Montage Gold Corporation reported that the company is on track to achieve its short-term objectives of discovering over 1Moz of M & I resources at a 50 % higher grade. prioritised given their proximity to the haulage road already built. Drilling resulted in both the Gbongogo South and Koban North deposits increasing in size while exhibiting a high rate of conversion from Inferred to Indicated Resources.
In total, Indicated Resources increased by 207koz to 273koz at a grade of 1.16g / t Au, with a further 74koz at a grade of 1.10g / t Au of Inferred Resources, across both the Gbongogo South and Koban North deposits. Both deposits are expected to continue to grow this year, given the ongoing drill programme and drill results not yet incorporated in the current Mineral Resource Estimate.
In addition, in-fill and step-out drilling at the ANV deposit is also expected to yield an updated, larger Indicated Resource estimate in late Q3-2025. Furthermore, resource updates are expected for yearend for other targets such as Yere North, Lokolo Main, Sena and Diouma North, where drilling has been done in H1-2025.
Since exploration began last year, Indicated Resources for higher grade satellite deposits have already grown by 404koz to 924koz at 1.32g / t Au, with an additional 140koz at 1.09g / t Au of Inferred Resources, with many more deposits expected to be further delineated.
Montage Gold announced that the results of its H1-2025 Koné exploration programme, in Côte d’ Ivoire, continues to provide significant confidence in achieving its previously published shortterm exploration target. With the goal of further improving the production profile from the commencement of production in Q2-20271.
Since the start of the year, a total of 83 280m has been drilled, already exceeding the 81 815m completed during the full year of 2024. Due to the ongoing successful results and drilling efficiency, the 2025 exploration programme has been increased from 90 000m to 120 000m, with a corresponding budget increase of USD4-million to USD18-million.
Given the extensive land package encompassing over 52 identified targets, the approach undertaken is to systematically drill test best selected targets to confirm their potential and define starter resources to validate grade profiles before undertaking larger stepout drilling campaigns. As such, 18 targets were drill tested last year, which successfully delineated starter resources for seven higher grade satellite deposits, while another 6 targets were advanced to the pre-resource definition stage.
Building on this success, the H1-2025 efforts focused on three parallel tracks: infill and extension drilling of previously delineated starter deposits, advancing pre-resource targets toward maiden resource definition and testing new targets. In total, 23 targets have been drill tested since the start of the year, with mineralisation confirmed at all targets.
To rapidly advance deposits to reserve status ahead of production commencing, an infill and step-out drilling programme commenced in early 2025 on the seven starter resources delineated in 2024. The Gbongogo South and Koban North deposits were
Martino De Ciccio, CEO of Montage said the exploration’ s results, together with the continued delineation of Indicated Resources, reinforce the large-scale potential of the Koné project, with all 23 of the 52 identified targets drilled to date returning positive mineralised intercepts.
“ These results provide significant confidence in achieving our previously published short-term goals to be achieved prior to production commencing in Q2-2027. This would represent significant returns on our exploration investment and aligns with our strategic objective of boosting production from the commencement of production while maintaining an annual production of at least 300koz for more than 10 years,” he said.
To support this goal, Montage is actively conducting step-out and in-fill drilling at several deposits where starter resources were delineated in 2024 – starting with Gbongogo South and Koban North due to their proximity to the planned haulage road, to rapidly advance them to reserve status ahead of production commencing.
Given the continued success of the programme, they have upsized the 2025 exploration campaign from 90 000m to 120 000m, with 83 280m drilled since the start of the year, making the project one of the largest single-asset exploration programmes globally.
“ The progress achieved thus far well positions us to continue unlocking value and further build on the momentum generated to advance our strategy of creating a premier African gold producer and delivering value for all our stakeholders.”
Silvia Bottero, EVP Exploration of Montage commented:“ We continue to be excited about the exploration potential at our Koné project in Côte d’ Ivoire given the ongoing success of the exploration programme.
www. africanmining. co. za African Mining Publication African Mining African Mining • January 2026 • 13