JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – East-Africa-focused gold exploration and development company Nyota Minerals had suspended all drilling operations owing to a working capital shortfall for the quarter to end March 2013.

Cash at bank, before adjusting for creditors, at December 31, was A$3-million.

The board was in continued discussions with various parties, including major shareholders, to secure interim funding to enable the company to complete the issue of the mining licence for its Ethiopia-based Tulu Kapi gold project.

The discussions covered both equity and debt instruments and the ASX-listed miner was confident it would secure interim funding through one of these initiatives in the near term.

“Discussions are at an advanced stage with a number of potential funding parties and we expect to make a further announcement very shortly,” Nyota CEO Richard Chase said in a statement.

The company was also introducing significant cost-cutting measures immediately and undertaking a review of the shape and size of the business to ensure that the cost structure was appropriate for its needs.

Meanwhile, Nyota reported positive drilling results from the feeder-zone drilling programme at the Tulu Kapi project.

The programme, which started in September, demonstrated the potential for a significant high-grade resource that would be developed through an underground mine.

The company reported an initial in-house inferred resource estimate of 1.1-million tons at an average grade of 5.4 g/t containing 188 000 oz of gold.

“Our drill programme has successfully demonstrated, in a matter of four months, the potential to add significant high-grade ounces to the Tulu Kapi resource inventory and to enhance the definitive feasibility study economics that were based solely on the initial openpit operation,” said Chase.

New high-grade intersections in the feeder zone included 15.04 g/t of gold over 9.45 m, 10.55 g/t of gold over 13.96 m, 5.34 g/t of gold over 12.25 m and 5.24 g/t of gold over 26 m.

Additional technical and financial studies by independent consultants were expected to start shortly.