Aim-listed Altus Strategies has announced the discovery of multiple high-grade gold prospects from reconnaissance sampling across all four of the company’s projects in Egypt.

Moreover, it has also announced the award of two further gold exploration licences, totalling 349 km², which will increase the company’s aggregate holdings in Egypt to 1 914 km² across six key project areas.

These projects were applied for based on their significant prospectivity for potential gold discoveries, as defined by the company's proprietary remote sensing and geological database.

They have been granted by the Egyptian Mineral Resource Authority under Egypt's second international competitive bid round.

All of Altus’ licences in Egypt are located in the highly prospective Eastern Desert and are held by the company’s 100%-owned subsidiary Akh Gold.

More than 100 hard rock artisanal gold workings were mapped, with grades up to 100 g/t gold.

The operational team in Egypt has now been fully established, including ten Egyptian geologists and two field offices.

An aggressive exploration campaign is under way to define and prioritise potential drill targets.

“There are few gold opportunities globally today that are as exciting as those presented in the world-renowned Nubian Shield geology of the Eastern Desert of Egypt.

“I am delighted to report that Altus has not only established a robust portfolio of highly prospective projects in this province, now totalling almost 2 000 km², but that our maiden exploration results indicate that we may already be on the tail of a number of potentially significant hard rock gold discoveries,” CEO Steven Poulton acclaims.

He outlines that key highlights from the recent programme include the definition of a discontinuous 12-km-long trend on the 175 km² Wadi Dubur licence, where sampling of numerous active and historical hard rock gold workings has returned grades including 51.10 g/t gold and 17.45 g/t gold.

Moreover, there is mapping of multiple hard rock gold workings within a 30-km-long discontinuously mapped shear zone corridor within the 696 km² Wadi Jundi licence, from which spoil sampling has returned grades up to 58.30 g/t gold and 20.50 g/t gold, with rock chip results including 10.20 g/t gold and 9.53 g/t gold.

There was also the discovery of a 2-km-long discontinuous zone of hard rock artisanal workings on the 348 km² Gabal Al Shaluhl licence, from which rock chip samples have returned grades of 14.75 g/t gold, 9.18 g/t gold and 6.16 g/t gold.