Troy Resources recent drilling program from the pit floor at the Karouni gold mine in South America has turned up a number of stellar intersections including one grading over 4 ounces to the tonne gold with visible gold evident in a number of samples.
Results include a 1m intersection grading 132.5 grams per tonne gold from the 21m mark, 2m at a very significant 53 grams per tonne from just 3m, 9m @ 6.5 grams per tonne, also from just 3m down hole, 7m @ 18.2 grams per tonne from 33m, 3m @ 18.9 grams per tonne from 24m, 4m @ 13.9 grams per tonne from 20m and 8m @ 4.9 grams per tonne from 28m.
Other notable results include 10m @ 3.5 grams per tonne from 69m, 2m @ 11.7 grams per tonne from 20m, 5m @ 7.8 grams per tonne from 35m and 2m @ 23.1 grams per tonne from the 30m mark.
Of the 29 down hole intercepts reported, nearly half of them were below the current pit design at Karouni providing some encouragement that the existing pit can be extended.
The company completed a total of 23 RC drill holes for 2081m of drilling from the floor of the “Smarts Stage 2 pit in June.
Troy says that it also better understands the Karouni ore body now after completing a grade control drill program at the project which discovered additional quantities of lower grade ore that were previously not recognized.
The new lower grade ore zones occur up to several metres away from the existing North-South trending veins and will result in an overall increase in the number of tonnes mined and therefore ounces per vertical metre.
The RC drill rig has now been moved to a 40 hole, 1,880m program in the Smarts Stage 4 pit area with results expected in coming weeks.
The mine was brought into production just last financial year and managed to produce 35 000 ounces of gold by year end.
It also managed to pay back US$32m of its debt facility to financier Investec in the last 12 months alone.
With $12m committed for exploration this year by Troy and stellar results being turned up regularly, it is safe to assume that we don’t yet know the full potential of the Karouni Gold Mine.
By Matt Birney
