Gold intercept of 8.6 g/t continues the positive storyline for Santana at NZ’s RAS deposit

Santana Minerals Ltd (ASX:SMI) has yielded one of the best results to date from its Rise and Shine (RAS) deposit, with an intercept of 41.6 metres at 8.6 grams per tonne of gold from 164.4 metres (with a true width of 38.8 metres).

The deposit is part of the wider Bendigo-Ophir project in New Zealand’s Central Otago region, with regional exploration in the Rise and Shine valley beginning in 2012, leading to the discovery of an intercept of 40.3 metres at 2.05 grams per tonne of gold in 2020 – this being the ‘RAS discovery hole’.

Santana has recently been carrying out infill drilling of the deposit’s high-grade core, and this has indicated that a consistent, rich, tabular core exists at RAS, in particular a ‘bonanza zone’ with a high proportion of gold metal.

CEO Damian Spring said the new intercept was indicative of a positive narrative for the RAS deposit, with Santana declaring earlier this year that it was ‘most significant single gold discovery in New Zealand in four decades’, with an updated mineral resource estimate of 2.2 million ounces of gold at 2.2 grams per tonne.

“With every hole we drill into RAS the outcomes just get better!” he said.

“We drilled this latest series of holes with intent to constrain the bonanza results within our high-grade core.

“They have shown it to be bigger and more continuous than we originally thought and this better-defined high-grade core will now form the foundation of our early production planning for the future mine.”

Santana shares were trading at $1.52 at 14:01 AEST, a rise of 14.1% since the market opened.