Casa Mining starts first phase of drilling at Akyanga
Ortac Resources announced part-owned Casa Mining had begun drilling the 1.5moz Akyanga deposit in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which management believes may contain a high grade gold resource of over 2Moz.
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According to Ortac, the programme entailed approximately 5,000m of diamond drilling and the first phase - which was due to complete in the following October - of approximately 2,200m.
The aim of that first phase was to assess grade continuity across interpreted domains, especially at the southern end of the deposit.
Ortac held a 22.2% stake in Casa as well as a convertible loan note which, if exercised, would raise its holding in the company to 45%.
It was also aiming to assess the potential for average grades greater than 200g per tonne within a conceptual pit shell, as well as the potential for tonnages in excess of 2.0Moz of contained gold within the Akyanga deposit area.
Casa was also looking to determine geological controls on the emplacement of gold mineralisation and future requirements to complete infill drilling for indicated reources.
The programme had the potential to confirm that a commercial mining operation on the licence would be economically viable, Ortac said.
"We look forward to updating our stakeholders on progress and the project's revised mineral resource", said Vassilios Carellas, Ortac's CEO.
The company's shares were increased 4.17% to 3.13p by 15:09 BST.