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- Drilling at Santana Minerals’ (SMI) Bendigo-Ophir project has continued to deliver high gold grades
- A 10,000-metre program is underway at the New Zealand deposit which is focused on Rise and Shine, Come-in-Time and Shreks deposits
- Mineralisation has been extended at Rise and Shine 740 metres down-plunge from the current MRE area within a thick zone that returned an average gold grade of 2.99 g/t
- Santana is roughly halfway through the diamond drilling effort with a mineral resource upgrade planned for Rise and Shine
- Company shares are up 16.7 per cent to trade at 66.5 cents
Santana Minerals (SMI) has received further significant results from its Bendigo-Ophir project on the South Island of New Zealand.
The company is undertaking a 10,000-metre drilling program at the Rise and Shine (RAS), Come-in-Time and Shreks deposits which sit along the Rise and Shine Shear Zone.
Today’s results come from seven holes drilled at the RAS deposit — all of which reportedly intersected mineralisation and confirmed its continuity over 1.3 kilometres down-plunge. The mineralisation remains open.
Results from the northern extension of the RAS deposit include 21.2 metres at 4.38 g/t gold from 280.8 metres including five one metre intercepts of roughly 10 g/t gold in hole MDD031.
MDD031 reportedly extends mineralisation at RAS 740 metres down plunge from the existing resource area in a 230-metre-wide zone defined by 13 holes with an average weighted grade of 2.99 g/t over an average thickness of 22.6 metres.
Additional results come from three holes drilled at the southern sector of the deposit and include 32.3 metres at 1.08 g/t gold from 147.7 metres including 11.3 metres at 1.28 g/t gold from 147.7 metres, and 7.3 metres at 5.23 g/t gold from 91.7 metres.
The company said the results have lifted the gold tenor and linked mineralisation at depth in the southern sector.
Overall, the ASX-lister said the higher grades at RAS highlight the potential of other deposits which strengthens its goal of rapidly advancing the Bendigo-Ophir project towards multimillion-ounce gold resources.
Santana is around half way to completing the 10,000-metre program which has primarily been focused on the RAS deposit where a mineral resource upgrade is underway.
Company shares were up 16.7 per cent to trade at 66.5 cents at 3:42 pm AEST.
