Newcore advances on Ghana drilling results
Newcore Gold Ltd. [NCAU-TSXV, NCAUF-OTCQX] shares rallied in active trading Wednesday after the company released impressive drilling results from its 100%-owned Enchi Gold Project in Ghana, West Africa.
Results released Wednesday are from a 66,000-metre drill program which is targeting the Boin Gold deposit and has intersected the highest grade interval recorded to date on the property.
RC hole KBRC250 returned 95.16 g/t gold over two metres from 109 metres. Drilling also continues to encounter wide zones of mineralization, with results including 1.28 g/t gold over 74 metres from 121 metres in diamond drill hole KBDD064.
Newcore shares advanced on the news, rising 6.9% or $0.04 to 62 cents on volume of 886,000. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of 92 cents and 56 cents.
The Enchi land package covere 40 kilometres of Ghana’s prolific Bibiani Shear Zone, gold belt which hosts several 5.0-million-ounce gold deposits, including Kinross Gold Corp.’s (K-TSX, KGC-NYSE) Chirano mine, which is located 50 kilometres to the north.
Newcore recently released results from a preliminary economic assessment which highlights the potential for a technically simple, open pit and heap leach operation, utilizing contract mining.
The PEA envisages annual gold production in years two through five of 104,171 ounces of gold., with 983,296 ounces being recovered over a mine life-span of 11 years.
The PEA is based on an updated, pit constrained, inferred mineral resource of 70.4 million tonnes, grading 0.62 g/t gold, containing 1.4 million ounces of gold.
The company said only 20,195 metres of drilling from the ongoing 66,000-metre drill program was included in the updated resource estimate.
Exploration and drilling activities continue on the Enchi Gold Project, with drilling testing a series of highly prospective targets directed at extending mineral resources along strike and down dip. The company is also engaged in further drilling of advanced gold targets across the 216 square kilometre property, as well as first pass testing of multi-kilometre scale gold anomalies.
Recent drilling results not included in the PEA resource estimate have intersected wide zones of oxide gold mineralization as well as high-grade core structures, including 5.40 g/t gold over 9.0 metres, 5.78 g/t gold over 7.0 metres, 6.25 g/t gold over 6.0 metres, 3.31 g/t gold over 9.0 metres and 2.95 g/t gold over 9.0 metres.
Drilling at Boin continues to highlight the open-ended nature of the deposit, as well as the potential for higher grade sulphide mineralization at depth, which is consistent with our geological model,” said Newcore President and CEO Luke Alexander.
He said 90% of the holes drilled to date as part of the current program have encountered gold mineralization, with approximately 46,000 metres of the drill program yet to be incorporated into the inferred resource estimate.