Serabi Gold pleased with latest drilling at Palito

The AIM-traded firm said the drilling confirmed depth extensions by over 100 metres below the lowest mined level, while step-out drilling indicated additional payable ore shoots up to 600 metres along strike in both directions.

It said significant down plunge intersections on the Mogno lode from underground exploration drilling included 0.75 metres at 39.96 grams of gold per tonne on hole PUD0578, 0.5 metres at 12.52 grams per tonne at hole PUD0635, one metre at 51.76 grams per tonne on hole PUD0679, 0.85 metres at 35.31 grams per tonne at hole PUD0681, and 1.25 metres at 17.29 grams per tonne on hole PUD0684.

Down plunge intersections on the Ipe lode from underground drilling, meanwhile, included 2.05 metres at 13.54 grams of gold per tonne on hole PUD0684, and 0.89 metres at 36.62 grams per tonne at hole PDD0566.

Surface drilling highlighted a number of potential new ore shoots along strike on both lodes, the board said.

On the Ipe vein, PDD0565 intersected 0.95 metres at 3.49 grams of gold per tonne 600 metres to the north west of the mine current development, and PDD0573 intersected 1.25 metres at 3.64 grams per tonne 400 metres to the south east of the current mine development, opening up the possibility of a “very significant” resource increase.

On the Mogno Vein, previous drilling undertaken in 2018 also indicated that vein to be gold bearing 600 metres to the south east of the current mining area, with PDD0533 having intersected 0.5 metres at 1.38 grams of gold per tonne, while PDD0534 intersected 0.5 metres at 2.06 grams per tonne.

“The Ipe and Mogno lodes are increasing their contribution to the Palito Mine ore feed due to their relative shallow depth and high grades,” said chief executive officer Mike Hodgson.

“Both these veins are being mined less than 200 metres from surface so are easily accessed and with the main ramp already deepened to over 350 metres from surface, both Ipe and Mogno do not require much capital development.

“Both shoots are extremely rich in both gold and copper with grades similar to the G3 vein which was a major contributing vein to Palito production in previous years.”

Hodgson said the confirmation that those veins were continuing at depth was “excellent news”, and boded well for the future of the operation.

“Furthermore, the drill results indicate significant potential to extend resources laterally along strike.

“We will continue drill testing these strike extensions over the coming months, and if we see a replication of the ore shoots currently being mined, this will confirm the potential for these two vein structures to continue to make a major long-term contribution to gold production.

“With drilling still ongoing at the Sao Chico and Sao Domingos prospects and a fourth rig arriving in June, we look forward to providing further exploration results to the market over the coming months.”

At 1109 BST, shares in Serabi Gold were down 3.24% at 71.6p.