www.nyotaminerals.com
Nyota Minerals Limited (Nyota) is a mineral exploration and development company dual listed on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange (AIM:NYO.L) and the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX:NYO.AX). We are focused on the exploration and concurrent development of Tulu Kapi, our flagship project in Western Ethiopia. Total Inferred JORC Resource containing 1.46 million ounces of gold (15.96 million tonnes @ 2.84g/t gold). The Company is actively exploring several priority targets proximal to Tulu Kapi as well as regional gold targets in the northern blocks which Nyota believes have the potential to become future standalone projects.
Nyota Minerals steps up activity at Tulu Kapi Gold Project and Muremera Nickel Project
Nyota Minerals (‘Nyota’) (ASX & AIM: NYO) released their quarterly update this morning, highlighting the transformation of the company after the acquisition of Minerva Resources.
During the quarter Nyota progressed the Tulu Kapi gold project, achieving its maiden JORC resource, while drilling at the Muremera Nickel Project in Burundi has commenced. Additional drilling at Tulu Kapi is also scheduled to take place shortly.
At the end of the quarter Nyota Minerals had a cash balance of £5 million.
In Ethiopia the Tulu Kapi Gold Project completed its maiden JORC Resource statement with 690,000 ounces of gold at a cut off of 0.5 grams per tonne (‘g/t’) of gold. Nyota also commenced a new exploration programme focused on expanding the existing JORC resource. Initial regional exploration has already returned encouraging trenching results including peak intersections of 8.18 g/t over 14.2 meters, 3.77 g/t over 3 meters and 1.34 g/t over 6.9 meters.
Nyota has contracted South African drilling company Geosearch International to deliver a reverse circulation (‘RC’) rig and a diamond drilling rig, which were dispatched from the Geosearch regional office in Tanzania and are travelling overland to Ethiopia. Geosearch will complete an initial 10,000 metres of RC drilling and 2,000m of diamond drilling at the Tulu Kapi site. Drill pads and access roads are being established for the first phase of drilling.
The initial programme will include some twinning of existing diamond drill holes, to check the veracity of RC samples and assay data. Additionally the programme is designed to intersect the assumed up-dip extension to the maiden JORC resource. Nyota also reported that more than 20km of targets have been identified based on a combination of historical diamond drill data, trenching, gold in soil geochemical surveys and geological mapping.
The upcoming diamond drilling campaign will provide detailed geological and structural information over the most significant targets, all of which form contiguous extensions to the existing resource.
Regional exploration has also commenced on the Bila Gulliso and Yubdo Exploration licences, located adjacent to the Tulu Kapi Licence. On the Bila Gulliso license, excellent results have been generated from trenching programmes with the Kobera and Soyoma Prospects returning particularly encouraging results. Based on a preliminary assessment by Nyota, further discoveries are likely, supported by clear evidence of quartz vein outcrop, alteration and ideal regional structure.
Trenching of the Soyoma Prospect, situated at the southern end of the Bila Gulliso Licence has exposed a number of mineralised zones over a strike length of 300m. The zone remains open to both the north and south and includes the remnants of a 900m long shallow open cast small-scale mining operation from the 1930's. All of the new trenches excavated were placed outside of the former mining area and returned a peak grade of 8.18 grams per tonne gold over 14.2 meters.
Trenching at the Kobera prospect located in the north-east quadrant of the Bila Gulliso licence exposed a broad zone of mineralisation over a strike length of 400m. The target remains open along strike, trenching revealed the presence of a large number of sub-parallel quartz veins with a sulphide association. Relatively low gold grades cover substantial widths offering scope for bulk open cast potential. Further exploration is required to establish the extent of the mineralisation and the potential for improved grades at depth. Nyota has employed an additional three geologists specifically to focus on regional exploration and target generation.
In Burundi, Nyota’s Muremera Nickel Project drilling successfully intersected two styles of mineralisation believed necessary for the future discovery of nickel sulphide bodies.
During the quarter, drilling totalled 1,750 metres across seven diamond drill holes. The objective was primarily to test previously generated geophysical targets with the aim of refining the interpretation of geophysical data to aid future exploration for sulphide mineralisation.
Five of the 7 holes intersected sulphide mineralised ultramafic bodies and “clearly identified the two styles of mineralisation considered essential for the discovery of economic quantities of sulphide nickel bodies.”
According to Nyota, exploration of this type is typically geophysically-led, therefore recent discoveries are considered highly significant. The Directors are of the view that these discoveries are extremely encouraging and serve to strengthen the case for continued exploration at Muremera.
