Galileo reports progress at Shinganda drilling

Galileo Resources updated the market on its second-phase diamond drilling programme at the Shinganda copper-gold project in Zambia on Tuesday.

The AIM-traded company said the programme, which aimed to test multiple targets within the project, was progressing according to plan.

It said seven holes had been completed, totalling an advance of 890 metres.

The most recent hole, SHDD017, located less than one kilometre along the strike from the Shinganda copper-gold prospect drilled last year, had yielded promising results.

Galileo said the hole intercepted a significant interval of alteration and brecciation, along with associated copper mineralisation within the Shinganda Fault Splay system.

SHDD017, an angled hole, traversed a rock package displaying a broad zone of hydrothermal alteration and brecciation.

Within that zone, variable amounts of chalcopyrite and pyrite mineralisation were seen over 264.5 metres from a downhole depth of 65.5 metres.

The presence of mineralisation, often occurring as clusters and disseminations associated with brecciation and quartz-carbonate veining, was confirmed through pXRF analysis.

Further sampling for follow-up laboratory assaying was currently underway.

Galileo said the particular hole signified a significant milestone, as it was the first designed to assess the iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) deposit potential associated with the Shinganda Fault Splay system.

Multiple follow-up holes were planned to explore the wide mineralised zone, as well as additional drilling to investigate the iron alteration clusters and induced polarisation (IP) targets identified by a previous geophysical study.

Additionally, within the ongoing drilling programme, several other shorter holes were drilled to test outcropping supergene gossan occurrences.

Those holes intersected shallow oxide mineralisation displaying anomalous copper based on initial pXRF testing.

Split core samples underwent laboratory assay to determine copper, gold, and multi-element content.

“Hole SHDD017 is a particularly impressive hole with an intercept length of more than 250 metres which was heavily brecciated and accompanied by copper mineralisation throughout its length, with values to be determined by assay,” said chairman and chief executive officer Colin Bird.

“The nature of the host environment is not typical for traditional copperbelt mineralisation which leads us to believe that this could be a totally different style of mineralisation.”

Bird said there was good district evidence for IOCG-type mineralisation, with the company targeting drilling with that model in mind.

“The next hole will be sited 100 metres away to test for mineral style repetition and continuity.

“We will advise shareholders when we receive assays, together with an update on the outcome of the upcoming borehole.”

At 1400 GMT, shares in Galileo Resources were up 12.09% at 1.21p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.