Sama Resources (TSX-V:SME) and joint venture partner, Robert Friedland-backed Ivanhoe Electric (NYSE:IE, TSX:IE), announced their 2025 exploration program, including work towards a resource upgrade and demonstrating regional exploration potential at the polymetallic Samapleu-Grata Nickel-Copper Project in Côte d’Ivoire.
The 2025 Exploration Program includes 4,500m of diamond drilling and updated environmental and social baseline studies to support the advancement of the project toward a mining permit application.
The joint venture is undertaking 3,000m of infill drilling at the Grata Deposit to shift part of the 2024 resource from the inferred category into additional higher confidence indicated resources.
The Grata Deposit hosts nearly 70% of the inferred resources totalling 67.3 million tonnes @ 0.24% nickel, 0.25% copper, 0.01% cobalt, 0.1 grams per tonne platinum, 0.26g/t palladium, and 0.04g/t gold.
Resource expansion drilling of 1,000m will step out from the existing polymetallic mineralisation at the main Samapleu Deposit, following up on high-grade, copper-rich, and polymetallic mineralisation.
The move to improve confidence levels and expand the resources comes on the back of the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) completed last year that shows the potential for a polymetallic mining operation producing 887,000 tonnes of nickel concentrate, 621,000 tonnes of copper concentrate, and by-product cobalt, platinum, palladium, and gold over a 16-year mine life.
The PEA estimates the project will have a net present value of US$463 million and a post-tax internal rate of return of 22.3% at an 8% discount rate.
This is based on forecast life-of-mine all-in sustaining cash costs of US$6.13 per pound of nickel and US$2.77 per pound of copper before by-product credits, and US$4.34 per pound of nickel and US$2.17 per pound of copper after by-product credits.
Sama Resources CEO Dr Marc-Antoine Audet says the Samapleu-Grata Nickel-Copper Project includes the large polymetallic Samapleu and Grata Deposits, which formed the basis of the 2024 PEA, demonstrating the potential for an economic, polymetallic mining operation.
The PEA covered just 3% of the 835km2 project area, which the joint venture considers “highly prospective” for additional polymetallic sulphide deposits.
The 2025 Exploration Program will include 500m of regional exploration drilling to test one of the multiple polymetallic sulphide prospects, Mossikro, about 10km to the south-southwest of the PEA area. Limited regional exploration undertaken so far has yielded the Yepleu polymetallic discovery 25km to the south-southwest of the Samapleu and Grata Deposits, and outside of the 2024 PEA scope.
The aim is to potentially demonstrate the “district-scale potential” of the project.
“Our upcoming program will continue to advance the project on multiple fronts — technically, environmentally, and socially — to de-risk and position the Samapleu and Grata Deposits for development,” Audet says.
“We are also eager to follow up on the high-grade and copper-rich polymetallic mineralisation we identified at the southwest Samapleu Extension and explore regional geophysical anomalies for potential incorporation into future technical studies.”
Sama Resources is a Canada-based company focused on exploring the Samapleu-Grata project, which sits adjacent to the large nickel-cobalt laterite deposits of Sipilou and Foungouesso, forming a 125km-long new base metal camp in West Africa.
Ivanhoe Electric is a US company that combines advanced mineral exploration technologies with electric metals exploration projects predominantly located in the US. The company’s portfolio of projects is headlined by the Santa Cruz Copper Project in Arizona. Ivanhoe Electric owns a 60% interest in the Samapleu-Grata Nickel-Copper Project and a 22.7% stake in Sama Resources.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Sama Resources
