JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – London-listed Stratex International on Wednesday announced that it would invest another $200 000 in Thani Stratex Resources (TSR), which is exploring for gold in Africa and the Middle East.

The investment will increase Stratex’s holding in TSR from 29.8% to 30.1% and forms part of TSR’s share placement of $500 000 to fund a second round of drilling at the Pandora gold project, in Djibouti.

TSR’s other major shareholder, Thani Emirates Resource Holdings, subscribed for the balance of the share placement.

Stratex also on Wednesday updated shareholders on TSR’s Anbat gold project, in Egypt, where a maiden resource estimate has been declared.

Anbat has a Joint Ore Reserve Committee- (Jorc-) compliant resource estimate of 5.9-milllion tonnes grading 1.11 g/t gold for 209 000 oz of gold, within a pit optimisation scenario based on a gold price of $1 500/oz.

Pit optimisation for a starter pit has provided 2.9-million tonnes, grading 1.08 g/t gold for 101 000 oz at a gold price of $1 250/oz.

TSR has completed 11 drilling holes for a total of 2 076.7 m. The best results include 9 m at 1.45 g/t gold from 28.3 m; 32.6 m at 1 g/t gold from 188.55 m; and 25.65 m at 0.56 g/t gold from 42.5 m.

"The recently reported drill intersections and the delivery of an initial Jorc-compliant resource are encouraging developments, with the plus of further exploration potential being indicated by consultants CSA,” commented Stratex CEO Bob Foster.

Foster returned to Stratex last month to help steer the company's strategy, following the departure of CEO Marcus Engelbrecht, who was removed from the board at a general meeting that was called by shareholders to scupper a merger proposal with Brazil-focused Crusader Resources.

Former Stratex directors and current shareholders, David Hall and Paul Foord, have previously proposed a merger of Stratex with TSR, of which they are CEO and CFO, respectively.