Ariana Resources PLC says early drilling results from its Dokwe project in Zimbabwe are giving the company confidence in the geology beneath the site, with work now more than halfway through a planned 4,000-metre programme.
The company, which explores and develops gold projects across Africa and Europe, has completed 2,411 metres of drilling so far. The campaign is aimed at expanding the known mineral resource at Dokwe by testing extensions of the main deposit.
In plain terms, Ariana is looking for signs that the gold-bearing rock continues beyond the areas already drilled.
The latest round of work has encountered strong silicification, pyritisation and shearing, geological features that often appear around mineral deposits.
These indicators have been found along what the company describes as a faulted and offset extension of the Dokwe Central structure.
Ariana is also leaning on real-time portable X-ray fluorescence, a tool known as pXRF that gives geologists immediate readings of the elements present in rock samples.
Combined with magnetic susceptibility measurements, these data help refine geological models as drilling progresses.
So far, 880 samples have been sent to Antech Laboratory in Zimbabwe to be assayed, with more to follow as the programme continues.
Dr Kerim Sener, Ariana’s managing director, said the team was “just a little over the halfway mark”, adding: “Based on our interpretation of the geology encountered so far, we are encouraged to note that our geological models have proven remarkably prescient.
“Notably, drilling along the Dokwe Central shear zone has largely confirmed the suspected offsets of this structure, and the distribution of known mineralisation is now better understood.”
He said the results justified further work: “Geological logging, coupled with the pXRF data among other information, underscores the need to conduct further drilling in this area in particular, and we are in the process of adapting the programme accordingly.”
Sener added that Ariana may extend the programme and is now planning extra drill holes. Assay results, the laboratory tests that determine the actual gold content of the rock, are expected before the end of the year.
Source: Proactive
