Investors cheered today’s drilling report from Stratex International’s (LON:STI) Megenta epithermal gold discovery in Ethiopia, sending shares in the company up 4 percent this afternoon.
More results are expected to follow with Stratex now preparing to drill into the peak gold disposition zone.
Stratex is currently undertaking an initial 3,000 metre drilling programme at Megenta.
It has now received the results from the first eleven drill holes for 2,260 metres, which returned a number of “highly encouraging” drill intersections, confirming extensions to gold mineralisation.
The best results included an intersection of 33.3 metres at a grade of 0.54 grammes per tonne (g/t) gold including 2.57 g/t gold over 1 metre and 1.67 g/t Au over 2.1 metres.
“We are highly encouraged by these results from selected intersections from initial drill holes at Megenta, the first of multiple discoveries in the new Afar epithermal gold province,” said executive director of East Africa at Stratex International David Hall.
Most importantly, the company noted that drilling is yet to intersect the boiling zone, where it its says it may find bonanza gold grades that it knows exist in the district.
Work is currently being undertaken to locate the area that is likely to host bonanza grades, based on the fluid dynamics that controls gold distribution at the Megenta prospect.
Stratex is currently continuing with its drilling programme to test mineralisation in several structures over the wide project area.
The company has also collected selective samples from seven holes to aid drill planning for further exploration programmes.
Shares in Stratex climbed 0.37 pence (4 percent) to trade at 9.75 pence this arfernoon, giving the company a market cap of £32.9 million.
Stratex International excited by initial results from Megenta gold project
Published: 12:51 27 Jul 2011 BST