Drill results from SolGold (LON:SOLG) were among the news highlights from the small cap mining sector this week.
The company's shares soared on Thursday after it revealed initial results from the Alpala prospect that showed copper-gold mineralisation over two zones.
In the first zone there are 100 metres (m) at 0.37% copper and 0.38 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 16 metres, while in the second zone the numbers were: 104m at 0.50% copper and 1.0 g/t from 222m.
High grade zones containing over 1% copper, principally identified in the 232m to 248m band, are to be assayed again using a high copper cut-off technique.
“Eleven 2m samples require re-assaying for copper, using a less sensitive assay technique, as these results were all greater than 1% copper, the maximum value for the preliminary assay technique employed.” SolGold said.
Alpala lies within the Cascabel project, in Ecuador. SolGold holds a 50% interest in ENSA, the Ecuadorean registered company that holds 100% of the Cascabel concession in northern Ecuador.
Cornerstone Capital Resources currently holds the other 50% of ENSA, but SolGold has an earn-in option that could see its stake rise to 85%
In other news, Stratex International (LON:STI) rose on news it is to plough £1 million (C$1.66mln) into Tembo Gold (CVE:TEM) in exchange for a 10.3% stake in the Canadian junior.
Stratex will form part of a strategic group of investors that includes the New Africa Mining Fund II and Concept Capital Management.
It is Stratex’s first investment in Tanzania, adding to a portfolio made up of Turkish and East and West African assets.
In total, the three groups are funding up to £5.2mln (C$8.66mln) to continue work on the Tembo gold property in Tanzania.
Yesterday (Friday) shares in Baobab Resources (LON:BAO) surged after it unveiled a major investment from a main shareholder that could fund the DFS for its pig iron project in Mozambique through to completion.
Redbird is wholly owned by the African Minerals Exploration & Development SICAR SCA fund, which owns 26.73% of Baobab's voting rights.
It has agreed to buy a number of shares at 15p each and has been granted two tranches of options over an equivalent number of shares at 20p a pop; a third tranche of options over 27mln shares has been conditionally granted, with the option price linked to the prevailing market price prior to the exercising of the options.
Through the placing agreement, Redbird has the potential to increase its holding to 37.85%.
Also this week, a maiden resource on the South Djadom Block 1 in Cameroon suggests it may become a satellite to a huge iron ore deposit nearby, West African Minerals (LON:WAFM) told investors.
The defined iron ore mineralisation continued into Block 2 at South Djadom, where drilling was recently completed and where an associated resource will be released next month.
Drilling on Block 1 defined a total inferred resource of 76.1mln tonnes (Mt) iron at a grade of 30.3% iron (Fe), within which there was a higher grade area of 12.6Mt at 41.6% Fe.
Meanwhile, early, high-grade results from the Picachos copper project in Chile confirmed its “significant potential”, said Herencia Resources' (LON:HER) managing director Graeme Sloan on Tuesday.
The sampled Leoncito Zone ore stockpile returned copper grades of 9.3%, 16.4% and 25.2%, while the Frenchman Zone stockpile contained grades up to 4.4%.
The 40 metre Shaft Zone ore stockpile had grades in excess of 3.56% copper, while rock-chip sampling of oxide targets uncovered a best grade of 6.4%.
Sloan said: "These are great first pass results, which clearly confirm the potential and what prompted our decision to option the Picachos project in the first place.
“We are seeing high-grade copper mineralisation over many parts of the tenement area."
Talking later to Proactive, he said the firm may look to begin drilling Picachos early next year.
However the group first needs to complete its sampling programme before then putting together a structural map of the property and potentially a geophysical survey.