Ortac Resources Ltd (LON:OTC) was the top riser in London on Tuesday after the junior explorer reported further significant gold mineralisation at the Akyanga licence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The latest assay results from the expansion and infill drill programme currently underway at Akyanga returned intersects of 5.9 metres at 2.7 grams per ton of gold from 199.4 metres below ground and 7.8m @ 2.67 g/t Au from 240.7m.
READ: Ortac Resources focused on gold potential in DRC
That second intersect included 1.7m @ 10.5 g/t Au from 240.7m.
The two holes were drilled towards the outer perimeter of the conceptualised pit in a part of the deposit where there was a lack of data and where the resource appeared to taper off.
They were drilled 200m apart from one another and successfully confirmed the continuity of mineralisation.
Possibility of expanding conceptualised pits
“With over 3,300m drilled in 2017, these are again a pleasing set of results, this time from the outer perimeter of our drilling programme at Akyanga - with good consistency of grade well above 2 g/t Au,” said executive chairman Nick von Schirnding.
“Both 117 and 118 show good zones of mineable thickness and previous drilling results within 100 metres of hole 118 show 18 metres of 4.63 g/t.
“We are now evaluating the possibility of expanding certain conceptualised pits - with all the economic advantages that scale brings.”
Casa Mining takeover nears completion
Akyanga is one of three licence areas at the Misisi gold project in South Kivu, which is 71.25% owned by Casa Mining.
Ortac currently owns 87.4% of Casa and made an offer to acquire the outstanding shares in November and the company expects that acquisition to be completed “shortly”.
Management has been reviewing historical drilling data at the project which includes more than 100 holes of exploration drilling, predominantly at the Akyanga licence area.
The results of this review will be announced next month, Ortac said.
Shares jumped 26.7% to 3p early on Tuesday.