Azumah Resources Limited (ASX:AZM) has discovered a new ‘blind’ high-grade eastern lode in drilling at its Wa Gold Project in Ghana.
The three-hole reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling program focused on the Bepkong East deposit and the first hole intersected a semi-continuous 93-metre mineralised zone grading 2.33 g/t gold from 261 metres.
This intersection included high-grade intervals of: 9.9 metres at 8.42 g/t from 295 metres; 2.16 metres at 21.17 g/t from 303 metres; and 0.5 metres at 88.71 g/t from 338 metres.
Azumah managing director Stephen Stone said the drill intercept from the first hole of the new campaign was further proof that the Wa project had much more to deliver as it transitions towards development.
The drilling at Bepkong is part of a 40,000-metre, $4-million multi-target drilling campaign aimed at lifting mineral resources and ore reserves at the project and delivering a commercially sound, development-ready project by quarter three of 2019.
Azumah believes the new lode discovery will have a materially positive impact on the overall Wa project, including increasing the likelihood of underground mining due to the volume of mineralised rock identified.
The remaining two holes at Bepkong have been completed with assays pending, but initial observations have demonstrated visible gold at a depth of 180.9 metres in a hole 100 metres north of the lode discovery.
Visible gold at 180.9 metres
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Stone said: “In coming weeks, we are looking forward to receiving drilling results from two other complementary deep-targeted holes just completed at Bepkong, along with two others underway at the Kunche deposit, where last April we demonstrated the presence of high-grade mineralisation at depth.
“This latest development is consistent with the structurally-controlled orogenic-style of mineralisation that hosts the Wa Gold Project and which we know can extend to considerably greater depths than we have been drilling to date.”
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The Bepkong East lode is associated with a major structurally-controlled ‘fluid conduit’ system that could extend mineralisation to considerable depth.
The lode’s discovery adds to the already substantial near-surface mineralisation at Bepkong of: 201,100 ounces measured and indicated; 44,000 ounces inferred; and 113,000 ounces proved and probable.
The drill rig has moved to the Kunche deposit to follow-up previous high-grade intersections including 44 metres at 5.37 g/t from 99 metres.
A mineral resource and ore reserve update, as well as a feasibility study progress update, is anticipated to be released in January 2019.
READ: Azumah Resources increases gold JORC resource to 2.5 million ounces
Azumah is developing a portfolio of gold exploration assets in Ghana, this year announcing a total JORC resource of 2.496 million ounces across its Wa Gold Project’s 12 deposits.
The company has progressively grown the resource by exploring its 2,400-square-kilometre licence holdings over large areas of prospective Birimian terrain, the rocks that host most of West Africa’s gold mines.
Along with a revised feasibility study and financial metrics, Azumah plans to continue drilling and growing the Wa resource and is fully funded to a development decision in the September quarter of 2019.