Underground development at the Buriticá project, Colombia, has hit two high-grade veins in the Yaraguá system, including 50 m at 60.9 g/t gold and 42 g/t silver at 2.64 m width in the Athena vein.
Continental Gold, which trades on the TSX, says high-grade mineralisation in Athena remains open along the vein and underground drift development advancing in both the west and east directions.
The Athena vein will be targeted by definition drilling at various elevations both above and below the Higabra tunnel elevation.
At the Cassandra vein, where 135 m at 33.4 g/t gold and 24 g/t silver at 2.62 m width have been encountered, underground drift development continues to advance along the vein.
Continental states that the Athena and Cassandra veins have been intersected near the elevation of the mine infrastructure in the Higabra valley. The company notes that it is confident that additional mineralised structures will be discovered with further underground development and drilling as sample density increases at these elevations and below.
The Athena and Cassandra veins will be incorporated into the mine plan and Continental expects that it will be in a position to potentially begin mining the veins as early as the fourth quarter of 2020.
"We are extremely enthusiastic with the discovery of bonanza-grade gold in the Athena and Cassandra veins. Importantly, both veins have already been developed along significant strike lengths and remain wide-open for expansion," commented CEO Ari Sussman.
"Given that the Athena and Cassandra veins are located so close to our mining infrastructure in the Higabra valley, they will be sequenced into the early part of the production schedule with mining to begin as early as Q4 2020."
Development of its the Buriticá project in Antioquia, is on schedule with mechanical completion of the mine anticipated prior to the end of the first quarter.