www.ovocagold.com
Ovoca Gold Plc is a Moscow-based gold exploration and mine development company with a strong balance sheet and an exciting portfolio of gold properties in the Magadan region, Russia.
The Company has a successful track record of developing precious metals assets and bringing value to shareholders. At the beginning of 2009 Ovoca Gold sold its flagship asset, the Goltsovoye silver deposit, for $47.7mn, a near 200% premium to the Company’s market capitalization at the time of sale closing. The entire asset development cycle Ovoca completed on Goltsovoye, from exploration to feasibility study to financing and start of mine construction.
Ovoca Gold’s Olcha drilling results ‘comfortably achieve commercial status’
Initial drill results from Ovoca Gold’s (LON:OVG) Olcha project comfortably achieve commercial status, according to Davy’s resource expert Job Langbroek.
In a note to investors, the Dublin-based resource analyst reflected on Olcha’s significant drilling results. Langbroek emphasised that the ‘commercial’ grades would even support underground projects.
With several projects hosting established in-situ gold resources, and nearly €40m in cash and assets, the analyst said that Ovoca is “well positioned to pursue the commercialisation” of its projects.
Earlier this morning, Ovoca Gold revealed 'significant' initial drilling results from the Olcha project in Russia, where it has now drilled 6,640m in 2010.
Lab results from the first 1,840m returned significant intersections, with lengths ranging from 0.8m – 14.1m and grades between 4 and 44.5 grams per tonne (g/t) gold. Additionally silver grades ranged from 13 to 110.4g/t.
The analyst highlighted that drilling continues, with the aim to confirm the continuity between high-grade intersections. According to Langbroek, this is an important requirement to establish Olcha’s commercial status.
The Olcha exploration project, which is hosted on the Rassoshinskaya license, consists of three main targets, Centralny Zone 1, Centralny Zone 2 and Zond. According to Ovoca, the results show that gold mineralization is open along strike and at depth at the Centralny-2 target.
In this morning’s statement, Ovoca Chief Executive Tim McCutcheon commented: "The mineralization interval widths and gold grade demonstrate the significant potential of Centralny Zone 2.
“We are continuing drilling further along strike and at depth at Zone 2. Additionally, work on Zone 1 and Zond continues. Our plan to outline the resource potential of Olcha proceeds as planned," McCutcheon added.
Ovoca also told investors that trenching work is now underway, and 1,690m have been trenched at Olcha to date.
In June 2010, Ovoca reported a maiden 344,000oz JORC resource for the Olcha project.
The resource statement was entirely based on historic drilling and trenching data - consisting of 16,455m of diamond drilling across 144 holes, and 12.3km of trenching. The current 2010 drilling campaign is designed to in-fill gaps in the data and expand on the results, in order to demonstrate ore-body continuity plunging at depth.
The Olcha project is located on the Southern part of the Rassoshinskaya license area, in the North-eastern part of the Magadan Region, approximately 700km from Magadan.
Ovoca describes the property’s geology as “an extrusion-explosion geological formation saturated with major veins, which are linked erratically with vein-veinlets (stockworks) sub-zones controlled by fault structures”.
The mineralisation constitutes “a low sulphidation epithermal gold deposit ... ore bearing rock is mainly andesite and andesite-basalt breccias, which cover about a quarter of the total Olcha area”.
According to Ovoca, the central part of the Olcha ore field extends for more than 2,500m in length, with widths of up to 1,000m. The deposit remains open along strike, with an existing strike length of approximately 3km, and at depth.
