Gold Awaits Economic Data

[SMM Gold Flash] Montage Gold reported a first gold pour at its Koné mine in Côte d’Ivoire on 26 September, yielding approximately 1,140 ounces. Announcing the milestone on 27 September, the company said more than 400,000 tonnes of ore had passed through the oxide circuit since feed began on 8 September. The pour came ahead of the mine’s original second-quarter 2027 target following early completion of that circuit. The pour establishes that gold has been produced, but it does not establish commercial production or a sustained production rate. Montage expects the oxide circuit to reach commercial production in the fourth quarter of 2026. Its separate hard-rock comminution circuit remains under construction, with completion targeted for the second quarter of 2027. Koné’s contribution to Côte d’Ivoire’s supply will depend on how those circuits ramp up.

[SMM Gold Flash] Lake Victoria Gold reported new metallurgical testwork for weathered ore at Area C of its fully permitted Imwelo Gold Project in Tanzania. Attrition scrubbing followed by desliming increased 24-hour gold extraction from 49.99% to 84.54% in agitated-leach testing. Bottle-roll recovery reached 88.15% after pretreatment, while gravity-recoverable gold also increased. The work was conducted by Nesch Mintech Tanzania in Mwanza. The company has identified attrition scrubbing and desliming as the preferred pretreatment route for further optimisation of the clay-rich near-surface material. Lake Victoria Gold says the results complement earlier work on deeper material, where recoveries of approximately 96–97% were reported. Importantly, the reported recoveries relate to tested pretreated fractions and do not yet represent overall whole-ore plant recovery; further mass-balance and optimisation work is planned.

[SMM Gold Flash] Aurum Resources reported new assay results from 22 diamond holes totalling 6,172.8 metres at the BST1 deposit at its Boundiali Gold Project in Côte d’Ivoire. The results include 2.63 metres at 76.74 g/t gold from 195.2 metres, including 1.3 metres at 155 g/t, together with 24 metres at 6.31 g/t from 108 metres, including 7 metres at 19.25 g/t. Several intersections extend beyond the existing BST1 resource envelope. The results will feed into Aurum’s planned Boundiali Mineral Resource update targeted for early Q4 2026. The company says mineralisation remains open along strike and at depth, while drilling continues across the project. The results are therefore an exploration and resource-growth development rather than additional production. Boundiali currently has a 3.22-million-ounce JORC Mineral Resource, while Aurum is advancing a definitive feasibility study.