East Africa-focused gold producer, developer and explorer Shanta Gold has completed 65% of its Phase 2 drilling campaign at its West Kenya project, with 55% of total planned drilling over three phases having been reported on.

Most recently, the fifth set of results received from Phase 2 of the ongoing drilling campaign identified visible gold in 15 intersections, across 35 holes. Phase 2 of the drilling campaign is targeting mineralisation up to 550 m below surface.

Since January 2021, Shanta notes, visible gold, including “spectacular occurrences”, was identified in 53 intersections across 142 holes.

At the Bushiangala deposit, assay results from recent drilling revealed 1.6 m of gold mineralisation grading at 47 g/t, from 342.6 m below surface; and 3.1 m of mineralisation grading at 26 g/t from 363 m below surface, both in drill hole 354.

A high-grade section of 50 cm, grading at 132 g/t was found at a depth of 343.2 m in drill hole 354, while another 3.1 m section revealed mineralisation of 80.6 g/t at a depth of 354 m.

At the Isulu deposit, assay results from drill hole 330 point to gold mineralisation of 65.2 g/t for 0.7 m from 380.4 m below surface; and 28.1 g/t for 0.8 m, 462.7 m below surface.

CEO Eric Zurrin says the latest phase of drilling at West Kenya continues to show the vast potential West Kenya offers in the Shanta Gold growth story.

“The 2022 drilling campaign is two-part, focused on upgrading existing resources to the indicated category and resource expansion across our numerous targets. Today’s results highlight our progress with the former, and will be quantified with a year-end resource upgrade targeting hundreds of thousands of new ounces to the indicated category.”

He adds that Shanta expects to have a further update in the next few months with its priority being to expand the resource base at targets including Kimingini and Ramula, where drilling is active and delivering “highly encouraging” results.