Australian-listed gold focused company Luiri Gold (ASX: LGM) has released the assay results from the first 5 RC drill holes at the Luiri Hill Gold Project which were completed to test the continuity of the wider mineralization in the central Matala zone in Africa.
All 5 drill holes intersected the wider mineralized zone with 4 drill holes returning high gold grades. A further 3 RC drill holes were completed in January 2010 in the same area. The samples from these drill holes have been submitted for analysis.
In addition, the results of the field programme completed in December 2009 which included mapping, rock sampling and detailed soil sampling has confirmed that a very large drill ready target exists in the Chikwashia area on the southern lobe of the Matala Dome but still within 10km of the current resource base.
“The results of the drilling at the Matala central zone is encouraging as this area was previously excluded from the wider Matala resource model,” Luiri Chief Executive Mike Sperinck said.
“Furthermore, the results of the exploration at Chikwashia have shown that the Matala Dome region has the potential to source significantly more gold than is currently estimated in the mineral resources at the Matala and Dunrobin deposits.”
A total of 5 of the planned 8 RC drill holes which were planned to test the continuity of a wider central mineralization zone at Matala (News Release December 17, 2009) were completed before the suspension of drilling over the year end.
The final 3 drill holes (MTLRC166, MTLRC167 and MTLRC172) were completed in January and the samples have been submitted for analysis.
All 5 drill holes showed wider than expected intersections within the Matala mineralization zone, with 4 of the drill holes exhibiting both very good widths and gold grades. These drill holes, when included with the recently drilled infill drilling programme have confirmed a robust high grade central zone at the Matala deposit.
In December 2009, a comprehensive exploration programme was carried out over two selected targets on the southern lobe of the Matala Dome, specifically at Chikwashia and Sankawande, two areas in very similar structural positions as Dunrobin and Matala respectively and therefore with the potential to produce similar styles of gold mineralization.
The results have shown that there is an extensive soil geochemical gold anomaly over Chikwashia extending for almost 2,000m north-south and up to 600m wide.
Work is also continuing on a number of other targets closer to Dunrobin and Matala, with further drill targets are expected to be identified in the near future and drilling of these will be prioritized around Chikwashia.
The current focus is at Luiri Gold‟s wholly-owned Zambian subsidiary, Luiri Gold Mine, which holds mineral tenements within southern-central Zambia covering approximately 1,200km2 of highly prospective exploration ground focused on the Dunrobin and Matala gold deposits.
The Luiri Hill Project is situated approximately 120km west-northwest of the Zambian capital of Lusaka in Zambia‟s Central Province. Access to the Project area is by a newly-upgraded paved road from Lusaka.
The current Mineral Resource at the Luiri Hill Project includes 656,000 ounces gold contained in 7.1 million tonnes at 2.9g/t for the Inferred category and 144,000 ounces gold contained in 2.2 million tonnes at 2.1g/t for the Indicated category (reported in Press Release April 15, 2008).