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- Santana Minerals (SMI) says further significant assay results from its Bendigo-Ophir project in New Zealand extend mineralisation and confirm significant gold continuity
- The company says results continue to define the shape and grade of mineralisation with intercepts including 26.7 metres at 1.84 g/t gold from 262.3 metres
- Drilling has continued since September at the project’s Rise and Shine (RAS) deposits, where almost all the recent diamond drill holes encountered gold mineralisation beyond the existing RAS mineral resource estimate (MRE)
- The company says the intercepted grades are higher than those reported in the 2021 Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE), which the company intends updating later this year
- SMI shares down 2.67 per cent to 36.5 cents
Santana Minerals (SMI) has reported further significant assay results from diamond drilling at its Bendigo-Ophir gold project in New Zealand that point to the continuity of a higher-grade mineralised extension.
The company said the latest intercepts appear to extend gold mineralisation down-plunge of the boundaries of the recently released mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the project’s Rise and Shine (RAS) shear zone deposits.
Best of the drill hits was 26.7 metres grading 1.84 grams per tonne gold from 262.3 metres containing individual one-metre intervals of up to 7.78 g/t.
Santana noted the grades were significantly higher than those reported in the 2021 MRE, which stands at an inferred 19.8 million tonnes at one g/t for 643,000 ounces of contained gold at a lower cut-off grade of 0.25 g/t.
The company said the new RAS mineralised extension dimensions comprise an average thickness of 30 metres at 2.25 g/t gold, a 420-metre northerly extent down-plunge at a shallow angle beyond the MRE and 260-metre east-west average width.
The deposit remains open to the north and east.
Santana planned to to drill a further 10,000 metres over the next six months at Bendigo-Ophir.
The company said it intended updating the MRE later this year.
“Since this work has clearly defined a north-east extension of the RAS deposit, our MRE needs to be updated to include this additional down-plunge extension, which will be drilled for at least a further 300m down plunge, with drilling now in progress,” Executive Director Dick Keevers said.
SMI shares were trading 2.67 per cent lower at 36.5 cents at 3:34 pm AEDT.
