Nyota Minerals (LON, ASX:NYO) said deputy chairman David Pettman has bought 100,000 Nyota ordinary shares and he now holds 320,000 Nyota shares and 2 million options exercisable at A$0.15.
In recent months, Nyota has been rapidly advancing the development of its flagship gold project in Ethiopia. In May, Nyota doubled the JORC inferred resource at Tulu Kapi from 690,000 ounces to 1.38 million ounces. The new JORC resource estimate is based on the data from Tulu Kapi maiden resource statement, plus assay data from 25 further reverse circulation (RC) drill holes.
The new JORC resource represents a 38% increase on Nyota's previously stated objective of a 1 million ounce resource target and a 100% increase on the maiden inferred resource announced in September 2009.
More recently, in earlier this month, reported further positive results from the ongoing exploration at Tulu Kapi. The additional program, of reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drill (DD) holes, has discovered a new high-grade structure beneath the current 1.38Moz Inferred Resource, where it intersected 8.7m averaging 8.9 grams per tonne (g/t) gold.
Diamond drill results have confirmed the presence of a new mineralized structure beneath the current Inferred Resource of 1.38 million ounces (Moz) of gold - 25.45Mt at 1.68g/t gold - with four deep diamond holes drilled below the current resource, which sits at a maximum depth to date of 200m.
The deeper holes have intersected sulphide mineralization in structures stacked beneath the two known lodes, which form the Inferred Resource.
Also, the company has expanded its foot-print in the surrounding area, through the acquisition of an 80% interest in a highly prospective land package, totalling over 4,500km2, to the north of Tulu Kapi.
With the acquisition, the company has secured first-mover advantage in an area which has been drawing attention from a number of rival exploration companies, it said in a statement. Nyota initially optioned the property back in April, and following shareholder approval this option has now been exercised.
"The north-west of Ethiopia is rapidly attracting the attention of a number of exploration companies and we are delighted to have secured this strategic addition to our tenement portfolio”, Nyota chief executive Melissa Sturgess commented.
According to Nyota, the highly prospective ground exhibits the same major geological structure thought to control the mineralisation at Tulu Kapi, which therefore increases the company's confidence of the potential for additional discoveries which could bolster the main Tulu Kapi resource.