Sama Resources and Ivanhoe Electric are advancing their Samapleu-Grata Nickel-Copper Project in Côte d’Ivoire with a comprehensive 2025 exploration program. The program includes 4,500 meters of diamond drilling and updated environmental and social baseline studies to support a mining permit application. A key focus is infill drilling at the Grata Deposit, aiming to upgrade inferred resources to indicated resources. The Grata Deposit contains nearly 70% of the project’s inferred resources, totaling 67.3 million tonnes at 0.24% nickel, 0.25% copper, and other valuable metals.
Resource expansion drilling will target the main Samapleu Deposit, following up on high-grade, copper-rich mineralization. This initiative builds upon a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) that demonstrated the potential for a polymetallic mining operation with significant output. The PEA projected an NPV of US$463 million and a post-tax IRR of 22.3%. The project also plans for regional exploration drilling to test polymetallic prospects, potentially demonstrating the district-scale potential of the project. Sama Resources CEO Dr. Marc-Antoine Audet emphasized the program’s aim to de-risk and position the Samapleu and Grata Deposits for development, and he mentioned they will follow up on high-grade mineralization at the southwest Samapleu Extension and explore regional geophysical anomalies for future technical studies.
