Proactive Investors - Caracal Gold PLC (LON:GCAT) has announced positive sample assay results from its diamond drilling (DD) programme on the Vim Rutha prospect, a shear zone of about 4.9 kilometres (km) parallel to the known orebody at the Kilimapesa Hill deposit in Kenya.
The expanding East African gold producer said the drilling intercepted, on several occasions and over a distance of more than 2 km from west to east, one or more mineralised structures of significant thickness located a few hundred metres south of Kilimapesa Hill.
In a statement, Robbie McCrae, chief executive of Caracal Gold said: "We have always believed in the possibility we will discover large open-pittable style resources at Kilimaespa, as can be found across the border in Tanzania. It is very early stage at Vim Rutha but the thinking behind the exploration programme is to target a large open-pittable resource that could possibly support the development of a large Tanzanian/West African-style gold mine.
"The 1m @ 84g/t Au in DD 005 is exciting as it is early confirmation that we have high-grade potential at Vim Rutha, but I am most excited about the widths and grades in DD 003, 004, 007, 008, 009 and 010 and the fact that these results are consistent over 2km of strike. The results from the first few trenches and reverse circlulation holes will follow soon and exploration work is ongoing daily - we have a long way to go and a lot of work to do but early indications are that Vim Rutha could be a second economically viable deposit in our Kilimapesa licence; 2023 is shaping up to be a very exciting year for all our stakeholders."
The company said the assay results confirm the Vim Rutha prospect corridor is intensely gold-bearing, with mineralised intercepts returned from historical diamond drilling as well as the vertical and lateral extension of one or more parallel mineralised structures, over several kilometres of distance just south of Kilimapesa Hill.
To date, 107 holes totalling 10,424 metres (m) of a planned 12,000m Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling programme and 21 holes totalling 3,637.7m of the planned 3,000m DD programme, which commenced in December 2021, have been completed.
Results continue to demonstrate the high gold potential of the various exploration prospects located in direct proximity to the Kilimapesa Hill deposit or in the same geological environment.
Results of 722 samples from Batch 5 have been received and results from the DD holes include:
- Hole VMRDD_001: 13.16m @ 1.59 grams per ton (g/t) gold (Au) from 45.27m including 1.19m @ 3.9 g/t Au from 49.79m
- Hole VMRDD_002: 3m @ 1.58 g/t Au from 72m
- Hole NMRDD_003 : 11.44m @ 3.15 g/t Au from 20.09m incl. 2.75 m @ 4.12 g/t Au from 25.86m
- Hole VMRDD_004: 7m @ 2.63 g/t Au from 16m incl. 2 m @ 5.80 g/t Au from 19m
- Hole VMRDD_005: 1m @ 84.15 g/t Au from 77m
- Hole VMRDD_006: 1m @ 1.29 g/t Au from 121m
- Hole VMRDD_007: 5m @ 3.17 g/t Au from 57 incl.uding 12.05 g/t Au from 57m
- Hole VMRDD_008: 1m @ 4.04 g/t Au from 12m
- Hole VMRDD_009: 18.11m @ 3.13 g/t Au from 13.7m
- Hole VMRDD_010: 7.97m @ 2.37 g/t Au from 18.05m including 2.4 m @ 5.22 g/t Au from 20.97m
Caracal Gold said that in parallel to the DD programme, which took place on the Vim Rutha prospect, 21 RC holes and two trenches were completed along the same mineralised corridor. Initial geological observations are encouraging and 1,578 samples have been sent to SGS's laboratory in Tanzania (Mwanza) for gold analysis, it added.
The company said the sixth batch of RC and trench samples have been delivered to the laboratory. These include samples from 21 RC holes and 2 trenches from the Vim Rutha prospect.
The success of the exploration progam on Vim Rutha has meant that most of the activities will be focussed on confirming it is a discovery of economic significance and then moving quickly to an initial MRE, and activities across the balance of the exploration licence will continue these include, West Kilimapesa Hill, Teng-Teng, Maghor and Olepoipoi, Caracal Gold concluded.