Drilling by Shanta Gold PLC (LON:SHG) in the area around its New Luika mine in Tanzania has continued to unearth good gold grades, it said today.
A nine hole programme at llunga identified bumper grades of more 23 g/t and 14 g/t in a couple of cases from depths between 130m and 205m and at widths of more than 1.7m and almost 15m in one assay.
Toby Bradbury, chief executive, said the grades and thicknesses of the mineralised extensions to the Ilunga deposit were very encouraging.
“The deposit remains open at depth and strike and we are confident that further on-going exploration has strong potential to further upgrade and extend the resource base at Ilunga."
The existing indicated resource at Ilunga is 40,000oz and Shanta is preparing more drilling to test how far the strike runs.
Shanta also updated the resource at Black Tree Hill, another New Luika satellite deposit, to 6,915 oz (Measured) and 31,071 oz (Indicated) from 57,178 oz (Indicated) using a 0.5g/t cut off.
New Luika comprises nine deposits in the Lupa Goldfields in the south of Tanzania. Shanta is exploring these satellite deposits to boost New Luika’s current probable reserves of 506,000oz.