Sula Iron & Gold (LON:SULA)#
Sula Iron & Gold (SULA LN) has announced further results from its 5,185m Phase 3 drilling campaign including high grade intercepts at the new TZ4 target as well as at Sanama Hill. These are the final results from this programme.
The results at TZ4 included 1.2m at 19.3g/t Au from a depth of 287m which follows on from the earlier result of 5.2g/t Au from hole FDD021 around 600m away. We note, however, that SULA has stated that the structural orientation of these holes is different which indicates multiple controls and that as at Sanama Hill the structural geology is complex. This is something that management is putting significant effort into understanding and will help with future drill targeting and understanding the potential of the mineralisation discovered to date.
Additional drill results were from Sanama Hill and also included encouraging high grades such as 8.6g/t Au over 2m from 134m deep as well as 7.5g/t Au in near surface oxide ore from 31m deep. The drilling campaign has provided robust results including high grade intercepts such as these although now the focus at Sanama Hill will be on low cost analysis of the data with a particular focus on structural geology.
Soil sampling across 8 of 19 identified targets has demonstrated multiple zones with anomalous gold values. One of these includes a new gold target to the northeast of Sanama Hill yielding anomalous gold grades, underpinning the company’s view that there is further potential for gold targets beyond those that have been tested to date.
We reiterate our Speculative Buy recommendation and 1.2p target price.
Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas (LON:ECO)#
Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas (ECO)# has announced it has entered into an option agreement on its interest in the Orinduik Block, offshore Guyana, with Total (FP FP). The option allows FP to acquire a 25% working interest (WI) in the block from ECO, of which it currently holds a 40% WI, Tullow Oil (TLW) is the operator and holds the remaining 60% WI.
FP will make an immediate payment of US$1m to ECO for the option and will make a further cash payment of US$12.5m upon exercise of the option. The Orinduik Block is located up dip and just a few kilometers from Exxon’s (XOM US) recent Liza and Payara discoveries confirming, by XOM estimates, between 2.25-2.75Bbbls of recoverable oil. ECO has reviewed 2D seismic data across the block and leads have been identified which TLW estimates contain prospective resources of 900mmboe. This 3D seismic programme is now the next stage of the exploration programme over the block and is being completed on time as per ECO’s guidance.
The option is entirely exercisable at FP’s right and must be done so within 120 days of completion of processing the 3D seismic survey, which has been underway for three weeks now. Should the 3D seismic survey back up or improve the initial resource estimates from the 2D data then we believe it would be highly likely that FP would exercise this option. Should this be the case then ECO will be left with a 15% WI on the Orinduik Block.
Each partner on the block will pay its pro-rata WI from the date of exercise of the option and ECO estimate exploration wells offshore Guyana on the Orinduik block will cost cUS$35m. ECO’s participating interest on a well would then be cUS$5.25m per well, therefore, the successful completion of this option would provide funding to meet ECO’s commitments on two wells and re-cooperate its contribution to the 3D seismic survey.
Following the success of the XOM at Liza, offshore exploration in Guyana has been high on the priority list for many of the majors as they seek to gain exposure to a basin with world class prospectivity but has been de-risked somewhat by XOM. We see this announcement as confirmation of this and as extremely encouraging news for ECO that will likely help move the licence further along the value chain.
We re-iterate our BUY recommendation and 25p TP.