Chaarat Gold Holdings Ltd (LON:CGH) has hit more gold in its ongoing drilling campaign at the Tulkubash project in the Kyrgyz Republic.
The Tulkubash project will become the company's second operating gold mine, scheduled to commence production in 2021.
An additional 8,100 metres have been drilled since the last exploration update, with assays pending from 25 drill holes and from extensive lengths of road-cut sampling.
The primary objective of this drilling programme has been to identify shallow mineralisation within and near the current pit designs and to extend mineralisation along strike to the northeast.
The current year's programme forms part of a multi-year drilling programme focused on adding further reserves, with the long-term objective of demonstrating a mine life of at least 15 years at the Tulkubash project.
The company expects to publish an update to the Tulkubash resource estimate before year-end 2019. This will form the basis for an update to the Tulkubash reserve estimate and economic model during the first quarter of 2020.
Drilling since the group's 28 August update has focused on the prospective Shir Canyon area, representing the strike extension to the north-east from the 2018 year-end resource boundary. This is an area where road-cut sampling earlier this season identified numerous areas of anomalous and, in cases, ore-grade, gold geochemistry at surface.
Encouraging results received to date include 13.5 metres grading 0.81 grams per tonne gold starting at 36.0 metres, 15 metres grading one gram gold at 19.5 metres, and 28.5 metres grading 0.99 grams starting at six metres.