Altamira Gold Corp (CVE:ALTA) (OTCPINK:EQTRF) has reported 'highly encouraging' channel sampling results from three new structures at its Cajueiro gold project in Brazil, underlining the potential to expand the current resource.
The results come from recent trenches at the Baldo area of the property, the firm said.
READ: Altamira Gold exploring alternative financing options for Cajueiro after Metalstream breaches obligations under US$6 million agreement
They include an intercept of 7 metres (m) at 1.32 grams per ton (g/t) gold at Baldo 3, which is an east-north-east (ENE) structure around 350m north of the known Baldo 1 zone and appears to be parallel to Baldo 1.
At Baldo C (a north-east trending structure located immediately south of Baldo 1), an intercept of 3m at 4.43 g/t gold, including 1m at 11.59 g/t gold was found, while at Baldo D, trenching identified 4m at 3.27 g/t gold, including 1m at 10.78 g/t of the yellow metal.
"The channel results from the three new mineralized structures in the Baldo area are highly encouraging and contain several high-grade intervals, confirming our belief that there is significant potential to expand the present 43-101 resource within the central area at Cajueiro," said Michael Bennett, the firm's CEO in a statement.
"The current resource corresponds to approximately 1% of the project area and we expect to identify further new zones both within and outside the resource area once the stripping of surface cover commences in advance of production."
Previous channel sample results from known mineralized structures in the Baldo area include 14m at 1.27 g/t gold (Baldo) and 6m at 1.93 g/t gold (Baldo 1), the firm noted.
Meanwhile, a large bulk sample of oxide material from the Cajueiro project has been sent to the Brazilian metallurgical test laboratory, and will shortly be sent to the CSIRO lab in Australia, in order to maximise plant recovery, Altamira added.
Also, soil sampling is in progress in and around the Maria Bonita gold-in-soil anomaly, which lies 5km north-west of the known deposits at Cajueiro in a bid to establish the source of placer gold in that area.
Cajueiro has an NI 43-101 resource of 5.7 million tons at 1 g/t gold for a total of 185,000 ounces in the indicated category and 12.7 million tons at 1.3 g/t gold for a total of 515,000 ounces in inferred.
A total of 14,000 metres of drilling and over 4,000 metres of trenching are completed to date within 285 hectares in the central part of the 28,577 hectare claim package, which is just 1% of the Cajueiro project area. Numerous other gold-in-soil anomalies remain untested.
Altamira added that it continues to explore alternative funding arrangements for the US$6 million required to fund the construction of a 1,000 tonnes per day gravity processing plant and surface mine, and is confident that it will secure funding soon.
Shares added over 5% on the day in Toronto to stand at C$0.20 each.
Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com