ASX-listed Orion Gold has made a “strong start” to its maiden drilling programme at the Prieska Copper (PC) zinc/copper project, in the Northern Cape, with initial assays including grades of up to 21.7% zinc and 7.5% copper confirming and enhancing historical results.

The PC mine, a key part of Orion’s emerging mineral portfolio within the Northern Cape’s Areachap Belt, is recorded as one of the world’s 30 largest volcanogenic massive sulphide base metal deposits.

The mine has a recorded historical production of 0.43-million tonnes of copper and one-million tonnes of zinc from 46.8-million tonnes of sulphide ore milled, according to the company.

The project covers unmined dip and strike potential, which has been previously delineated by extensive drilling and geophysics.

The current drilling programme, which started in June, is designed to confirm infill and extend historical drilling at the +105 exploration target. To date, 14 holes have been completed for 909 m drilled, with results having been received from the first six holes.

Initial results include 22 m at 10.8% zinc, 1.38% copper and 0.3 g/t gold from 57 m, including 7 m at 17.8% zinc and 1.41% copper at OCOR016, and 12 m at 4.14% copper, 1.89% zinc and 0.29 g/t gold from 57 m, including 3 m at 7.4% copper and 4.34% zinc at OCOR017. The results also include 5 m at 2.1% copper and 0.34% zinc from 35 m at OCOR014 and 5 m at 0.92% copper and 1.56% zinc from 15 m at OCOR013A.

Drilling at the exploration target continues to intersect massive sulphides, with further results expected in the coming weeks.

“These first exploration results are very encouraging because of the exceptionally high grades encountered and because they confirm the presence of substantial sulphide-hosted zinc/copper mineralisation close to surface at the PC project,” Orion Gold MD and CEO Errol Smart said in a press statement last month.

He reiterated that the company’s aim in acquiring an option for this project was to identify a project with near-production potential. “These initial results give us great confidence that the PC project has all the attributes to support this objective,” he said.

Drilling is also being carried out at the Marydale gold project, a virgin epithermal discovery about 60 km from the historical PC project in the Areachap belt.