NYSE- and Aim-listed Caledonia Mining Corporation has reported more encouraging results from deep-level drilling at the Blanket gold mine, in Zimbabwe, which it says validates the continuity of mineralised zones on the Blanket and Eroica orebodies.
Caledonia aims to delineate an increased overall resource on the project, with more than 7 600 m of drilling having been conducted from June to December last year.
In total, the company’s drilling spanned 13 280 m in the full year.
Some of the latest intercepts returned on the property include 8.4 m of gold grading 4.95 g/t from 1 108 m, 24 m of gold grading 5.92 g/t from 1 130 m and 10 m of gold grading 8.8 g/t from 909 m.
Caledonia CEO Mark Learmonth says the ongoing drilling campaign continues to demonstrate encouraging results and further improves the company’s confidence in the Blanket resource.
“We anticipate that the positive grades and widths will result in an increased overall resource, which in due course should result in the extension of the existing life of the mine. We have invested heavily in Blanket over the last seven years to increase production capacity, resulting in a mine infrastructure that can sustain production beyond the current production horizon,” he explains.
Learmonth adds that drilling is currently focussed on the Blanket and Eroica orebodies, where crosscuts have been mined to allow optimal access to drill the deeper zones of the steeply dipping orebodies.
The company plans to publish a revised mineral resource and mineral reserve statement in the second quarter of the year, as well as a revised life-of-mine plan.