Ariana Resources PLC (AIM:AAU) announced a 240% jump in estimated resources for the Kokkinoyia Sector of the Magellan copper-gold project in Cyprus.
The total indicated and inferred resource estimate was increased to about 12.3 million tonnes at a grade of 0.31 to 2.25% copper and 0.27 to 0.57 grammes a tonne gold across multiple zones of mineralisation.
Ariana has a 50% stake in Venus Minerals Ltd, the owner of the project, and both companies internally updated the previous JORC resource estimate using new and historical drilling data.
"This is an exceptional result and we are very proud of the Ariana and Venus teams having successfully completed the drilling programme and in pulling together this new resource estimate for Kokkinoyia,” said Ariana’s managing director Dr. Kerim Sener.
“Not only has the overall tonnage increased by 240% but we have now successfully brought a significant part of the resources into the higher confidence indicated category.
"In addition, as we had predicted, the Kokkinoyia deposit contains a substantial amount of gold, in association with copper and zinc.
“The fact that the deposit contains a substantial tonnage of mineralised material across several domains beyond what was already understood from the historical work bodes well for future exploration and resource drilling.
“We are already well on track with not only meeting but also exceeding our management target for the project and any additional work at this site is likely to yield further upside.”
Yesterday, Ariana announced new resource estimate for the Apliki copper project.
READ: Ariana Resources unveils new resource estimate for Apliki copper project in Cyprus
"Venus will now be looking into the potential to integrate a part of the Kokkinoyia Sector with the planned Apliki copper mine development project as a means to fast-tracking this deposit into production," Sener said in today’s announcement.