City broker Fox-Davies repeated its buy advice and 123 pence a share price target for shares in Minera IRL (LON:MIRL, TSX:IRL) today in the wake of some very encouraging drilling data from one of the firm’s prospects in Argentina.
A scout progarmme at Pan de Azucar in Patagonia put down 27 holes over a length of 950 metres.
A 3.25 metre section of the best hold contained 5.51 grams per tonne of gold and 5.55 grams of silver. Another almost 2 metre section contained 3.51 grams of gold and 8.23 grams of silver.
“This was an excellent first set of drill holes,” said analyst Peter Rose in a note to clients.
Pan de Azucar is one prospect within the Chipas Vein Field where more than eight kilometres of outcropping epithermal veins remain to be explored.
The programme was designed to probe the 950 metre strike length and targeted the vein at depths of between 30 and 160 metres below surface. It is the first step in a much larger programme to explore the entire Chipas Vein.
“Our initial impression is that these excellent results potentially herald Minera’s next gold mine after Don Nicholas and Ollachea are developed,” Rose added.
“Whilst Minera has 2,700 square kilometres of exploration licences on the Desado Massif in Patagonia, these results, being in the far south of the lease, are quite remote from previous drill results announced at other sites to date and would probably have to form the basis for a stand-alone mine.”
At 3.00 pm the shares were trading 1.5 pence higher at 84 pence, valuing the miner at £100 million. In the past year the stock has advanced by 25 per cent.
Listed on AIM and the TSX, Minera operates the Corihuarmi Gold Mine and is exploring the Ollachea Project, which are both of which are in Peru. It is also undertaking a feasibility study at the Don Nicolas gold project in Patagonia, Argentina.