Strong drilling results pushed Saracen Mineral up on ASX

Saracen Mineral Limited (ASX:SAR) has announced that the company's 400,000 ozpa organic growth strategy has been well on track. As per the company, the strong drilling results support plan to grow mine life and production. The company's exploration and drilling plans kicked off with A$60million investment, which was planned over FY19. The estimated break-up of the A$60 million is : A$11 million in Carosue Dam exploration, A$20 million In Karari-Dervish, A$16 million in Thunderbox exploration and A$13 million on various other exploration projects and as of the end of January 2019, A$ 31 million had been invested with strong results.

Operations and Exploration Update

Carosue Dam Corridor: The exploration and resource development efforts are moving with an accelerated pace across the Key Projects at Carosue Dam, and the drilling is focused on key operating underground mines (Karari-Dervish and Deep South) and High-ranking targets along the Carosue Dam Corridor.

As per the company, the ongoing drilling focused on the north of the Karari mine had continued to deliver exceptional results. Two extensional exploration holes were drilled to test the position of the known high-grade trends, and these holes were successful in intersecting the orebody up to 400m below current production. The vertical advance of 400m implied an additional seven years of life. The company received significant results from the drilling which includes 69m @ 4.1g/t ,59m @ 3.4g/t and 20m @ 9.3g/t. A small drilling program was also conducted on the southern end, particularly testing the upper extensions of the Dhoni Lode that is currently under review as the potential open pit ore source. Upper Dhoni results included 19.1m @2.9g/t, 17.8m @ 2.8g/t and 49.0 @ 2.0g/t. As per the company’s announcement, over 65,000m of drilling is planned during the year 2019.

To increase the drill density and the resources for future production activities, the company completed the Deep south program in the whirling-Dervish underground mine. The drilling in the region progresses steadily with one rig but the second rig now commences extensional exploration, targeting the high-grade southern shoot, the drilling at Whirling gives a strong result which includes, 29.6m @ 4.9g/t, 30.2m @ 3.3g/t and 10.2m @ 5.9g/t.

Amid the previous encouraging results from the Deep South Underground, the drilling at the mine extended and defined an extension to the known high-grade trend. Additional drilling was approved in the mine to increase the drill coverage and better definition of the high-grade zone. The drilling brought the strong mineralisation in the area with 13.9m @ 8.7g/t, 11.0m @ 8.4g/t, 26.3m @ 3.0g/t and 8.3m @ 6.0g/t.

Thunderbox: To optimise the planned underground mining method, drilling continues to provide valuable data. The initial drilling focused on close space infill to better define the upper areas of future mining and progresses toward extensional exploration. The results include 13m @ 6.0g/t and 19m @ 3.4g/t.

The Thunderbox zone extensional drill results include 49m @ 2.3g/t and 42m @ 2.4g/t.

At Otto Bore which is located 9km north of the ThunderBox mill, the extension and drilling results include 10m @ 7.0g/t, 4m @ 11.0g/t and 5m @ 8.3g/t.

A three rig RC drilling over the total area of 15,388 meters was completed and returned with a positive result including 17.0m @ 2.8g/t, 15.0m @ 2.9g/t and 15.0m @ 2.7g/t.

Along with the very high positive results, two discoveries in the Carosue Dam Corridor were followed by Atbara and Qena respectively.

The company recently announced Blackrock group as its substantial holder.

At the end of the trading session, the stock of the company stood at A$3.220 (as at 18 February 2019), up by 3.205% or 0.100 points.

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