VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Brisbane, Australia-based, dual LSE- and TSX‐listed explorer SolGold has announced positive exploration results at its flagship Cascabel copper/gold project, in Ecuador.

Following the arrival of two track-mounted rigs, with a further two having arrived in country, the drill fleet has increased to a total of 11 machines.

While the company is ramping up its exploration effort at Cascabel, the results continue to expand the scale and extent of the mineralised bodies. The company is currently working towards an initial resource estimate for the Alpala deposit and previously indicated that 11 identified targets remain untested.

To date, SolGold has completed more than 56 800 m of drilling at Alpala and a further 120 000 m is planned for 2018.

SolGold reported on Friday that, at the Alpala Central area, hole CSD-17-030 and its daughter hole, CSD-17-030-D1, extend the Alpala Central deposit about 100 m south-east of Hole 28. Hole 33 has intersected more than 700 m of visible mineralisation thus far, from 791 m to the current depth of 1 491 m, as drilling continues. Hole 33 extends mineralisation about 120 m above holes nine and five, where the upper extents of the deposit along its western margin remain open towards the surface.

Among the highlights at Alpala Central are a 542-m-long intersection from a depth of 532 m in hole CSD-17-030-D1, which averaged 0.37% copper and 0.22 g/t gold and included a higher-grade portion over 160 m, from a depth of 622 m, which averaged 0.53% copper and 0.3 g/t gold.

At Alpala East, Hole CSD-17-029-D1, the first daughter hole of Hole 29, confirmed the presence of porphyry style copper/gold mineralisation, returning an open-ended 348 m grading 0.47% copper-equivalent (Cu-Eq) and extending mineralisation by about 200 m east of Hole 23R-D1.

Hole 29-D1 reported a 430.4-m-long intersection from a depth of 738 m, at an average grade of 0.32% copper and 0.15 g/t gold.

A higher-grade section within the hole intersected 158.4 m at an average grade of 0.49% copper and 0.27 g/t gold from a depth of 1 010 m.

Assay results are pending for hole CSD-17-029-D2, which reported more than 420 m of visible copper mineralisation from 900 m to 1 564 m, extending mineralisation by about 200 m below Hole 29-D1.

Drilling continues at Alpala East in hole CSD-17-029-D3, which has thus far intersected more than 239 m of visible mineralisation, from 949 m to the current depth of 1 188 m. The company said that holes 29-D1, and 29-D2 have grown the width of the Alpala deposit by about 20%, from 390 m to 470 m, at the 0.7% Cu-Eq cutoff.

Further, SolGold reported that at Alpala Northwest, Hole CSD-17-26-D3 is currently at a depth of 1 588 m and remains in visible mineralisation, which it entered at a depth of 964 m.

Drilling is also under way at the Hematite Hill and Alpala Southeast deposits, where holes 31, 31D and 32 have all intersected visible mineralisation. Hole 31-D1 infills mineralisation between Hematite Hill and Alpala Southeast. Hole 31 extends mineralisation by about 150 m southeast of Hole 27.

At Alpala West, Hole 34 continues at a current depth of 1 170 m, testing for extensions to the high-grade panel intersected in Hole 25, which returned 238 m grading 1.31% Cu-Eq.

To date, SolGold has drill-tested four of the 15 targets identified so far at Cascabel and is working towards a maiden mineral resource estimate for the Alpala deposit.

Meanwhile, the Alpala deposit remains open in multiple directions and the mineralised corridor marked for drill testing of the greater Alpala cluster occurs over a 2.2 km strike length from Trivinio, in the north-west, to Cristal in the south-east. The mineralised corridor is estimated to be around 700 m wide.

SolGold owns 85% of Exploraciones Novomining (ENSA) and about 5% of TSX‐V‐listed Cornerstone Capital Resources, which holds the remaining 15% of ENSA, the Ecuador-registered company that holds 100% of the Cascabel concession.

SolGold's TSX-listed stock on Friday closed up 5.15%, at a new 52-week high of C$0.51 a share.