East Star Resources PLC (LSE:EST) said it started drilling on the Apmintas licence in the Chu-Ili gold belt of central Kazakhstan.
The diamond drilling programme will initially focus on areas with known high-grade mineralisation including the Novoe, Southern Shabdar, and Eshkilitau II targets.
"After an extensive predrilling field programme which included geological surveys, soil sampling and ground-based magnetics, we are very excited to commence this high impact drilling campaign which we hope will provide the data required to prove extensive high-grade gold mineralisation,'' said chief executive Alex Walker.
"The drill programme aims to extend past intersections and grades along strike, with the potential to discover economic deposits from exploration of only a small part of the licence.
“By using diamond core, work can also be undertaken on the minerology and metallurgy including conducting 'gravity recovered gold' testing to begin establishing a processing route for eventual production.''
Discovery holes in a September 2021 drilling programme intersected 63 metres (m) at a grade of 4.51 grammes a tonne (g/t) gold at the Novoe target and 14m at 2.54 g/t gold at the Eshkilitau II target.
Historical drilling results from Southern Shabdar include 24.9m at 2.86 g/t gold and 8.2m at 13.0 g/t, while historical drilling highlights from Eshkilitau II include 1m at 7.00 g/t gold and 2.8m at 4.67 g/t gold.