The company said the Diakha-Siribaya update took the resource at the project in western Mali to an indicated 18 million tonnes at 1.28g/t for 744,000 ounces and an inferred 23.2Mt at 1.58g/t for 1.2Moz.

It updates the project's previous indicated 2.1Mt at 1.9g/t for 129,000oz and inferred 19.8Mt at 1.7g/t for 1.09Moz.

Senior vice president exploration Craig MacDougall said the delineated drilling programme over the past two years had resulted in a significant increase in resource ounces and a substantial conversion of inferred resources to indicated.

"Our exploration success at Diakha, coupled with the recently announced results of our feasibility study across the border at our nearby Boto gold project in Senegal, continues to demonstrate the exploration upside of our very prospective land holdings in this region of West Africa," he said.

The announcement comes just two days after the company pulled the pin on construction at Côté, saying it would wait for "improved and sustainable market conditions", and remained focused on its existing operations at Saramacca, Rosebel Essakane and Westwood.

The mid-tier gold miner said it would continue exploration and evaluation activities at Diakha-Siribaya in 2019, including a 10,000m resource expansion drilling programme.

Shares in the company, which were trading at C$7.24 a year ago, are back above $4, losing 1c yesterday to close at $4.73 and put its capitalisation at $2.2 billion.