Newcore Gold’s Nyam hit at Enchi: pit expansion and schedule lens for mine planners
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
Newcore Gold has reported its strongest interval yet below the reserve pit at the Nyam deposit on the Enchi project in Ghana, with hole NBDD088 cutting 25.3 metres grading 3.67 g/t gold from 307.7 metres downhole and NBDD091 returning 18 metres at 1.26 g/t from 300 metres. The five new diamond holes, totalling 1,489 metres and drilled to vertical depths up to 275 metres, all intersected gold well above the current 0.64 g/t reserve grade that underpins a 5.5 Mt/y, 953,000 oz, 9.3‑year open-pit plan. With only 28,000 of 80,000 planned metres included in the March resource and current drilling still shallow relative to the >800‑metre depths at nearby Chirano, engineers can expect future pit-shell expansion, higher-grade feed and potential re-optimisation of the mine schedule and plant throughput assumptions.
Technical Brief
- Five reported diamond holes totalled 1,489 m across four sections spanning 410 m strike.
- True widths for reported core intervals are estimated at 75–85% of drilled lengths.
- Deepest Nyam drilling to date reaches ~275 m vertical depth; historical holes average only ~100 m.
- Nyam’s current resource stands at 13.5 Mt indicated at 0.66 g/t (287 koz) and 5.5 Mt inferred at 0.68 g/t (120 koz).
- Enchi’s probable reserves total 51.3 Mt at 0.64 g/t for 1.06 Moz of contained gold.
- June PFS mine plan assumes a 5.5 Mt/y open pit and mill, producing ~953 koz over 9.3 years.
- Economic case at US$3,800/oz gold gives after-tax NPV5 of US$496 M, 37% IRR and 1.6-year payback.
- Initial capital cost is estimated at US$351 M, with Newcore currently holding US$18.8 M cash and no debt.
- Four rigs are active: targeting both shallow resource conversion and deeper, higher-grade extensions not yet in the resource.
- Depth potential is benchmarked against Asante’s Chirano mine 50 km away, where underground workings exceed 800 m depth.
Our Take
Newcore Gold’s current Nyam drilling follows the 80,000-metre programme noted in our 2 July coverage, where above-reserve grades below pit shells were already emerging; taken together, this suggests growing potential to convert deeper mineralisation into higher-grade underground or push-back scenarios at the Enchi project.
With Enchi located only about 50 km from Asante Gold’s Chirano mine, which is already mining to around 800 m depth, the deeper intercepts now being reported at Nyam provide a local analogue suggesting that structurally controlled gold systems in this part of southwestern Ghana can remain productive well below the current 275 m drill depth ceiling.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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