Nyota Minerals Ltd (LON:NYO, ASX:NYO) is planning to announce a further drilling update from its flagship Tulu Kapi gold project in Ethiopia to the market before the end of 2010.
Following the completion of the latest fundraising, initially announced in September, which gave the group £21.58 million to fast-track Tulu Kapi and move it to production, it issued a letter to shareholders today.
Nyota currently has 4 diamond rigs and 1 reverse circulation rig operating 24 hours per day, 6 days per week at Tulu Kapi, and the current objective remains to drill infill holes and to drill holes which aim to provide results indicating an extension to the orebody.
“With 10 RC and 30 DDH holes with assays pending, we expect to announce a further drilling update to the market before the end of 2010,” it said.
The preliminary economic assessment feasibility study is nearing completion, and Nyota is still on track to deliver the results before the end of 2010. It is currently finalising details with consultant SRK and going through the process of testing all of the assumptions, calculations and conclusions.
Approximately 10,000 of the planned 44,000 lines kilometres of airborne survey have now been completed. Interpretation of the results is an ongoing process. “We hope to be able to announce the findings from this survey before the end of the quarter. The results to date look very encouraging.”
It has also been able to source an additional new diamond drill rig in Ethiopia and this will start work in the next couple of weeks, providing a kick-start to the regional exploration programme.
This will enable immediate drilling on some of the already identified regional targets on the Yubdo and Billa Gulliso licences, where some excellent trench results have been achieved. Highlights of historical work include 8.18 grammes per tonne gold Au over 14.20m at Soyoma and 1.34g/t Au over 6.90m at Kobera.
It also completed geophysical surveys which confirmed that indicated mineralization occurs over a minimum of 300m strike length for Soyoma, and 400m strike length for Kobera. The drilling programme will be designed to test these identified targets.
The environmental and social impact study for the Tulu Kapi project has begun. This is a necessary requirement for moving Tulu Kapi from an exploration project to a mine.