LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Ariana Resources announced the imminent start of exploration drilling at its wholly owned Dokwe Gold Project in Zimbabwe on Thursday, following an extensive soil geochemical and geophysical programme that has significantly expanded the project's understanding and prospectivity.
The AIM-traded company said drilling would focus on the Dokwe North and Central deposits, and new regional targets including the Sinkwe, Siduli Pan, Wabayi and Mpunzi prospects.

A total of 10,086 soil samples were collected and analysed using portable XRF and detectORETM methods across the 44 square kilometre project area, outlining multiple anomalies aligned with major shear zones extending for at least 12km of strike.

"Over the course of several months, the Dokwe site team have completed an extensive new soil geochemical programme over the entire project area, covering 44km² and undertaken on a tight grid," said managing director Dr Kerim Sener.

"This work, in addition to an extensive assessment and re-processing of previous geological, geophysical and geochemical data, has resulted in a much-improved understanding of why the gold deposits at Dokwe North and Central are located where they are.

"Given that there is over 1Moz of gold contained within only about 10% of this strike length, with the rest remaining essentially untested by drilling, suggests there may be considerable upside and discovery potential elsewhere in the project area."

Ariana plans to drill ten holes at the newly identified Dokwe Northeast Extension, where gold-in-soil anomalies suggest mineralisation could extend beyond the current resource.

Follow-up drilling was also planned at the Sinkwe prospect, where historical data recorded 7.3m at 6.63 grams of gold per tonne from 32.2 metres, and at the Siduli Pan target, which returned an isolated but high-grade intercept of 0.5 metres at 81.09 grams of gold per tonne from 243 metres.

The Dokwe Gold Project hosts a JORC-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate of 1.42 million ounces of gold at a 0.3 grams per tonne cut-off, contained within 44.9 million tonnes grading 0.98 grams of gold per tonne.

Measured and indicated resources make up 86% of the total.

Sener emphasised that the work undertaken had positioned Ariana to "commence drill testing at certain locations along over 12 kilometres of strike of these shear zones," saying the company's near-term objective is to "test high-priority targets that have either been inadequately followed up, or not followed up at all".

At 1545 BST, shares in Ariana Resources were up 3.09% at 1.63p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.

Email this article to a friend

or share it with one of these popular networks:

• DIGG
• FACEBOOK
• STUMBLEUPON
• MIXX
• YAHOO BUZZ
• DELICIOUS
• REDDIT
• NEWSVINE