6th Jan 2016 09:00
LONDON (Alliance News) - Sula Iron and Gold PLC shares rose on Wednesday after its chief executive said the assay results from the recent drilling campaign on the Ferensola gold project in Sierra Leone exceeded his expectations and leads him to believe there is a major high-grade deposit.
Sula shares were trading up 13% to 0.310 pence per share on Wednesday morning.
"I am excited by the results of the second batch of drill core samples from the extended scout drilling programme at our Ferensola Gold Project, together with the samples of 'goldstones' as they exceed my best-case expectations," said Nick Warrel.
"I believe our Ferensola gold project hosts a major deposit of significant tonnage together with high grade and we look forward to progressing the project further in due course towards a Bankable Feasibility stage," the Sula chief executive added.
Sula completed the scout drilling programme at Ferensola on budget and on schedule in November, comprising of 10 diamond drill holes focused on areas of previously known mineralisation from within the company's exploration target area, with step out holes being completed to test the dip and strike continuity of the mineralisation.
The exploration area on which the campaign was focused represented around a quarter of the company's total exploration target at Ferensola.
Sula already has released the first batch of assay results covering 4 of the 10 drill holes, which showed the company had intersected high-grade gold mineralisation in all of those holes. The drill holes returned gold grades of up to 16.18 grams per tonne, though one of the holes was abandoned early due to drilling issues. The average total weighted grade of the mineralisation found was 3.72 grams per tonne.
On Wednesday, the second batch of results covering the other six holes were released and showed a total of 7 of the 10 drill holes incurred gold mineralisation above 0.5 grammes of gold per tonne of ore, which was the company's cut-off grade.
Three of the holes, FD006, 007 and 010, part of the second batch of results, did not intersect any significant mineralisation.
Hole FDD005 returned results of up to 12.05 grammes of gold from eight separate mineralised zones with thicknesses varying from 0.4 metres to 1.4 metres. Hole FDD008 produced up to 5.66 grammes of gold from four separate zones with thicknesses varying from 0.6 metres to 2.0 metres and hole FDD009 yielded results of 1.28 grammes of gold with thicknesses of 0.7 to 1.2 metres.
To put the second batch of results into perspective, the first batch yielded results of 13.25 grammes of gold with thicknesses varying from 0.45 to 2.0 metres, 16.18 grammes of gold over thicknesses of 0.5 to 3.2 metres and 11.95 grammes of gold over thicknesses of 0.6 to 3.3 metres.
The other hole from the first batch yielded results of up to 3.81 grammes of gold with thicknesses of 0.4 to 1.9 metres, but was abandoned early due to drilling issues and did not reach its planned target depth.
Combining the two batch of results, the average weighted grade came in at 4.48 grammes of gold per tonne of ore with thicknesses of 0.4 to 7.1 metres, averaging 1.5 metres. The first batch of results only yielded an average weighted grade of 3.72 grammes of gold.
In addition, Sula secured six goldstone samples and one quartz-pyrite float sample from up to two kilometres outside of its exploration target which returned average grades of 8.4 grammes of gold and 69.2 grammes of gold per tonne of ore respectively - suggesting there is further significant mineralisation lying outside of the area that Sula is currently exploring.
Goldstone is a colloquial term for material believed to represent weathered sulphide mineralisation and is one of the target material types for miners in the area.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Sula Iron & Gold