Shanta Gold Ltd said further high-grade results from drilling at the Isulu and Bushiangala deposits of its West Kenya project make it the most consistently high-grade drilling programme ever conducted in the company's history.
Visible gold was identified in seven intersections across 25 holes drilled at the deposits during the third and fourth quarter, it said, adding that visible gold has been identified in 30 intersections across 93 holes drilled in the year to date.
One of the drill holes at Bushiangala intercepted 6.4 metres (m) at 47.3 grammes a tonne (g/t) gold, including 0.5m at 114.0 g/t gold.
"This is the most consistently high-grade drilling programme we've ever conducted at any asset in Shanta's history,” said chief executive Eric Zurrin.
“This announcement, which confirms another set of high-grade drilling results at our West Kenya project across the Bushiangala and Isulu deposits, gives us significant confidence in the wider prospectivity in our vast licence area.
“Both of these deposits have proven to be high-grade ore bodies and today's results - with a hit of 6.4m grading 47.3 g/t at Bushiangala - reaffirm our excitement at the potential of West Kenya to transform Shanta to a mid-tier gold producer.”
The AIM-listed gold producer also reported positive results from the first of 12 holes drilled at the historical Ramula target.
“Regional exploration drilling also commenced at the third target area, Ramula, with visible gold identified in 5 occurrences in the first hole, and further encouraging results reported including the potential for a bulk zone following an intersection of 60.8 m grading 3.75 g/t - signalling the potential for even more high-quality discoveries across the broader licence area,” said Zurrin.
“As we continue to progress our exploration drilling programme at West Kenya, our ambition is to increase the resource conversion rate and ultimately the total resource estimates, further strengthening our future development portfolio.
We will complete 35-40% of total planned drilling of 84,000m at West Kenya by the end of this year and look forward to providing a resource update in early 2022."
In September, the company announced its first indicated resource for the project.
READ: Shanta Gold reports its first indicated resource for the West Kenya project