Goldstone Resources' Ghana mine finds gold enrichment in saprolite

AIM-listed Goldstone Resource's recent drilling program at its mine in Ghana found gold enrichment in saprolite.

The AIM-listed miner’s recent drilling programme comprised 3,000 metres of auger and some 1,500 metres of reverse circulation drilling of the AK02 prospect within the Akrokerri licence.

The reverse circulation drilling of a 750 metre-long gold enriched saprolite zone found confirmed mineralisation at depth and returned significant intersections of 14 metres at 1.18 grams per tonne of gold and 8 metres at 1.88 grams per tonne of gold.

A 120 hole auger programme defined a new zone of gold enrichment in saprolite about 100 to 200 metres east of last year’s auger anomaly.

Chairman Neil Gardyne said: "This phase of exploration, focused on the Akrokerri licence that straddles the linking structural zone between the Homase resource and the world-class Obuasi mine, has demonstrated significant potential in terms of the deeper reverse circulation drilling of the target area identified in 2015 and also the identification of parallel zones of gold enrichment in saprolite resulting from the 2016 programme.

“These results and the juxtaposition of Akrokerri with Obuasi provide considerable encouragement to undertake further exploration in this area.”

He said that the company has started a commenced a preliminary programme of diamond drilling to probe the strike extensions of some of the deeper and higher-grade sulphide ore shoots previously identified within the known Homase 602,000 ounces of gold at the Australasian Joint Ore Reserves Committee Code (JORC) compliant resource.

By focusing on adding to the oxide resource and also evaluating the deeper sulphide resource, the company is looking to upgrade the total resource base and provide various options for exploiting both oxide and sulphide ores, a key corporate objective given the recovering gold price.

Geological interpretation of the auger and reverse circulation drilling indicated that the complex structural zone between the Homase deposit and AngloGold Ashanti's Obuasi mine is prospective.

Reverse circulation drilling of the southern part of the previously identified Homase-Akrokerri resource zone confirmed continuity of the zone, but has limited potential for identifying additional oxide resource.

Diamond drilling, targeting vertical depths of 200 to 300 metres, started to find high-grade ore shoots beneath the known Homase oxide resource.

Shares in Goldstone Resources were up 4% to 1.95p at 0800 GMT.