Altus Strategies PLC (AIM:ALS, TSX-V:ALTS, OTCQX:ALTUF) said drilling started at its Diba gold project in western Mali, following the end of the rainy season.
The 10,000-metre reverse circulation and 1,300-metre diamond drilling programme, which is being supplemented by up to 7,500 metres of air core (AC) drilling, is designed to expand the current mineral resource estimate of the Diba deposit.
Diba hosts a shallow-dipping, near-surface gold deposit and a number of other prospective targets.
The drilling programme will also test the strike and down dip potential of the Diba NW discovery and test the extent of the high-grade zone within the Diba deposit.
“The drilling programme has been designed to expand and infill the existing Diba Deposit and define a maiden resource at the 900 metre-long Diba NW discovery,” said chief executive Steven Poulton. “The AC programme will be used to test numerous, as yet undrilled, satellite targets which are proximal to the Diba deposit.”
"Recent drilling from Diba NW has established a series of consistent shallow-dipping zones of gold mineralisation,” he said, noting that previous exploration drilling at Diba NW returned an intersection of 1.45 grammes a tonne gold over 22 metres from a depth of 55 metres.