Ariana Resources PLC (AIM:AAU) said recent drilling data identified potentially economically significant gold and zinc zones within the Kokkinoyia deposit of the Magellan project in Cyprus.
The project is 100% owned by Venus Minerals Ltd and Ariana will be completing its earn-in to 50% of Venus by the end of October 2021.
"The Kokkinoyia Sector has proven to be a significantly more exciting deposit than initially thought,” said Ariana’s managing director Dr Kerim Sener.
“The presence of gold throughout the system is notable, and its closer association with zinc in the upper parts of the system suggests that the eventual economics of the Kokkinoyia mining opportunity will be influenced significantly for the better.”
Previous drilling and sampling at Kokkinoyia was generally completed only for copper and sulphur, so it was not previously possible to quantify gold and zinc potential and/or their association with copper within the deposit, said AIM-listed Ariana.
Significant gold intercepts included 51.8 metres at 0.96 grammes a tonne (g/t) gold plus 0.51% copper, 0.28% zinc and 8.21% sulphur, while significant zinc intercepts included 47.0 metres at 0.36% zinc, 0.28g/t gold, 0.20% copper and 2.6% sulphur.
“Intercepts of over 40-50m carrying 0.5-1 g/t gold, with associated copper and zinc, dramatically change the definition of potentially economic zones across the deposit,” said Sener.
“This will also have a marked positive impact on the mineral resource which is currently defined only for copper at 5.2Mt @ 0.69% Cu. In addition, further upside exists within the Kokkinoyia East area, which has not yet been drill tested by Venus.”
The 2021 drilling programme focused on testing the Kokkinoyia West area of the deposit.
"Further work will now need to be undertaken on the metallurgy of these zones of mineralisation to determine the optimal route for economic extraction of copper, gold and zinc, in particular the potential to recover the metals via hydrometallurgical processing routes. Venus is currently engaging with metallurgical consultants to define a programme of testwork which will lead towards a processing plan."