Serabi Gold upbeat on exploration at Sao Domingos and Sao Chico

Brazil-focussed gold mining and development company Serabi Gold announced the first exploration drilling results at its recently-acquired Sao Domingos project on Friday, as well as continued success with ore body extension drilling at the Sao Chico deposit.

The AIM-traded firm said that at Sao Domingos, following “encouraging” regional reconnaissance work within the property, it had chosen to focus on the 600 metre long high-grade gold prospect Toucano, eight kilometres west of the company’s Sao Chico operation.

It said the first three diamond drill holes had been completed, with a “strong” set of intersections recorded, including five metres at 24.09 grams of gold per tonne, including 1.5 metres at 67.69 grams per tonne at hole 20-SD-003.

They also highlighted 0.55 metres at 11.3 grams of gold per tonne on hole 20-SD-001, and 1.4 metres at 5.01 grams of gold per tonne at hole 20-SD-002.

It said the exploration drill holes had been supplemented by the first partial surface channel samples, including 2.9 metres at 5.99 grams of gold per tonne from sample CHRLR-001, five metres at 7.11 grams per tonne from sample CHTOU-002, one metre at 5.84 grams per tonne from sample CHSCO-003, four metres at 1.05 grams per tonne from sample CHSCO-005, and eight metres at 3.02 grams per tonne from sample CHSCO-012.

Serabi said 13 in-situ surface rock chip samples were also taken over the Toucano zone, returning promising results including gold values of 2.36 grams per tonne to 513.01 grams per tonne of gold, averaging 95 grams of gold per tonne.

At Sao Chico, it said surface and underground exploration diamond drill holes had targeted a new ore zone, the Julia Vein, which lay to the north of the main ore body currently being mined.

It said “significant” intersections included 0.55 metres at 12.79 grams of gold per tonne on hole 20-SC-177, 1.5 metres at 7.23 grams per tonne at hole 20-SC-179, 0.4 metres at 7.45 grams per tonne on hole 20-SC-183, and 0.65 metres at 12.31 grams per tonne at hole 20-SC-187.

The intersections also included 1.85 metres at 8.62 grams of gold per tonne on hole 20-SCUD-370, 5.9 metres at 60.09 grams per tonne at hole 20-SCUD-377, 1.92 metres at 38.89 grams per tonne on hole 20-SCUD-381, and 4.2m at 27.12 grams per tonne at hole 20-SCUD-386.

“The pandemic interrupted our exploration activities in 2020, but by November we had drill rigs back on site, at Sao Chico and Sao Domingos,” said chief executive officer Mike Hodgson.

“Sao Domingos has been a property that we have wanted to acquire for considerable time, so we wasted little time getting exploration up and running there.

“The Toucano prospect at Sao Domingos is a walk up and drill target.”

Hodgson said the company only secured access in late November, and had worked “as quickly as possible” to complete some initial drilling.

“To obtain such encouraging results so quickly into the programme is really pleasing and supports our initial hopes for this area.

“The Toucano prospect has had three artisanal open pits, each of which have been mining a south west to north east trending mineralised zone, which at surface is 20 metres wide.

“The mineralised zone has been traced over 600 metres, and we are investigating this mineralisation at depth.”

All three holes intersected payable grades, Hodgson said, adding that the stand-out intersection of 24.09 grams of gold per tonne over five metres width, at a vertical depth of 70 metres was “very encouraging”.

“In parallel to the drilling we are undertaking multiple trenching and rock chip programmes to test the surface grades, and although this sampling is far from complete, the initial showings are also very exciting.

“Drilling at Toucano has restarted following the Christmas break and we will continue to test with drilling the near surface potential along the entire 600 metres zone, as well as infill the channel and rock chip sampling programmes on surface, to build up a good three-dimensional understanding of the prospect.

“In addition to Toucano, Sao Domingos hosts many prospects where the artisanal miners have successfully mined oxide ore and we have started an initial reconnaissance programme of rock chip sampling over the property.”

Mike Hodgson said the results had been “equally encouraging”, and the company would be following up on the best of those in the coming months.

“At Sao Chico, we have also enjoyed a successful restart to the exploration programme, focused on the western extension of the Sao Chico orebody and in particular a new zone discovered to the north of the main ore body being mined, called Julia.

“The Julia Zone was identified when the mine initially opened in 2015, but only in the central part of the mine, and at that time, did not yield particularly encouraging results.

“As a consequence, the mine development continued to focus on the Main Zone.”

Hodgson said that it was only now, while the company had been investigating the main ore body to the west and beyond the current mine limits, that it had intersected the Julia Zone, but this time demonstrating mineable widths and grades.

“To date approximately 30 holes have been drilled from both surface and underground, with some results still pending, and the drill programme is ongoing.

“Results so far have been very positive - eight of the holes drilled have recorded significant grades ranging from 7.23 grams of gold per tonne up to over 60 grams of gold per tonne over mineable widths.

WThis recent success highlights the possibility that the Julia Zone is a parallel zone to the main orebody and potentially extending along the current 600 metre strike length of the Main Zone of the Sao Chico ore body and could well extend to the east as well,” Hodgson said, adding that it opened up the potential to develop the mine northwards.

At 1137 GMT, shares in Serabi Gold were up 7.42% at 97.75p.