JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim- and ASX-listed gold and nickel exploration company Nyota Minerals plans to start a regional exploration programme across all its Ethiopian licence areas in October.

The company’s exploration properties, which comprise seven claim blocks, cover a 3 550-km² area.

The exploration activities would include rock and soil geochemical sampling, mapping and trenching and reverse circulation drilling.

“We are broadening the company's focus to begin serious exploration of our entire Ethiopian portfolio, now that we are confident of the potential at Tulu Kapi. Nyota is one of the first movers and fastest explorers in Ethiopia and we hope that our exploration efforts over our regional tenements identify projects for future development,” CEO Melissa Sturgess noted in a statement on Wednesday.

Nyota’s most advanced project, the Tulu Kapi project, has a resource of 1,38-million ounces of gold.

The company noted that all the claim blocks showed favourable geological settings, structural settings and good mineral indications.

To assist in guiding the regional exploration programme, Nyota had commissioned a regional airborne geophysical survey to be undertaken by Australian company UTS-Aeroquest, by the fourth quarter of this year.