A fairly busy week for the small cap diggers, which included drill results from Sula Iron & Gold PLC (LON:SULA).
Continuity of the gold intercepts at its Sanama Hill target at Ferensola in Sierra Leone has been confirmed by its latest drillng, it said.
The first three assays from the latest 14-hole campaign indicated the mineralisation extends along strike and down dip up to a depth of 300m and also remains open-ended.
Best intersections were 6.9 grammes per tonne gold over 1.6m at a depth of 257m and 2.5g/t over 3m at 294m down in a second hole.
Roger Murphy, Sula's chief executive, told investors: "These are very pleasing results in their own right, but more importantly, with every hole we drill, our understanding of Sanama Hill's gold endowment improves significantly."
Shanta Gold
Sticking with yellow metal, Toby Bradbury, Shanta Gold Ltd’s (LON:SHG) chief executive, is to step down from the company with Eric Zurrin, currently chief financial officer, to take over.
It comes as the group has started to adjust to recent changes to the finance and mining laws in Tanzania.
Eric Zurrin, currently chief financial officer, has taken over as chief executive and the focus going forward will be on cost control.
Shanta operates the New Luika gold mine in Tanzania, where the government recently passed laws giving it the power to renegotiate contracts, demanded more local ownership, upped royalty payments and imposed a 1% clearing charge on mineral shipments out of the country.
Golden Saint Resources
Elsewhere, the reinvigoration of Golden Saint Resources Ltd (LON:GSR) is continuing apace, as new chief executive Pierre Fourie prepares to take up his position following an extensive period of due diligence.
What’s more, the company has also appointed former project manager Adimas Prawiro as Executive Director, Business Development, and he’s already been out banging the drum for the new CEO.
“Pierre Fourie has a reputation in South Africa for being one of their top diamond engineers,” says Prawiro.
“And he’s taken on the job on the understanding that we have substantial resources in the ground.”
Sunrise Resources
Sunrise Resources PLC (LON:SRES) this week gave investors an update on its findings at the CS Pozzolan-Perlite Project in Nevada, United States, as it confirmed the completion of a drill programme on schedule.
The programme, which was expanded to 9 holes (from 5), encountered thick intervals of perlite-pozzolan, the company said in a statement.
It cautioned, however, that the intervals are ‘visually identified’ and will need to be confirmed through analysis of drill samples, which is now underway.
Sunrise also highlighted what it described as exceptional results from initial testing of surface samples, taken from the project’s northeast zone.
Stratex International's (LON:STI) interim results charted a period of transformation for the AIM-quoted mine developer – one in which it sold its cornerstone asset and agreed to acquire a Brazil-focused business with a large gold resource.
The disposal of Stratex’s 45% share of the Altıntepe Gold Mine, in Turkey, netted £6mln and resulted in a book gain of £2.9mln. It also left the business with just under £6.1mln on the balance sheet.
In May it said it planned to buy Crusader Resources in an all-share deal worth £31mln.
Xtract Resources
Xtract Resources PLC (LON:XTR) is all set for its first alluvial mining to commence at the Manica project in Mozambique by the end of this month.
Following the signing of a contractor agreement with Omnia Mining Ltd on 19 June and with Sino Minerals Investment Limited on 11 July, almost all of Omnia’s equipment is now on site and being installed.
In addition, Sino Minerals has paid its first initial payment, which was a condition of allowing it to set up.
"Omnia Mining and Sino Minerals are aggressively pursuing development of the proposed mining operations on our Manica gold property,” said Xtract chairman Colin Bird.