ASX-listed mineral exploration and development company, Sihayo Gold (ASX:SIH), reports it has received ‘high-grade’ results following the completion of a recent diamond drilling (DD) campaign at its namesake project in north Sumatra, Republic of Indonesia.
The results, generated from 7 drillholes for 2,216m, have returned moderately thick, ‘high-grade’ gold (Au) intercepts that deliver grades of up to 7.90g/t Au (SHDD644), with other key results including, 31.5m at 4.29g/t Au from 259m, including 11.1m at 7.49g/t Au (SHDD645) at the Sihayo Starter Project.
Results also indicate that mineralisation remains open at depth and to the south and have warranted further study to assess the potential for underground mining opportunities to augment its planned open pit mill feed.
The recent DD campaign was conducted to test for potential extensions to known deeper ‘high-grade’ gold mineralisation located below and south of the planned pit shell
Commenting on the results, Sihayo Gold’s Executive Chairman, Colin Moorhead said: “The existing Sihayo model clearly shows grades and thicknesses improving at depth to the south of the current optimised pit-shell, however that mineralisation has been, until now, considered to be largely refractory in nature.
Encouraged by strong improvements in metallurgical recoveries arising from High pH Leaching at Sihayo, the company targeted seven new holes into this area to assess the potential for an underground mining opportunity and explore for indications of a ‘high-grade’ feeder zone.
“Results from this drilling have confirmed the grade and thickness of some of the deeper mineralisation in the model and has indicated extensions to the known ‘high-grade’ gold zones.”
Results from this drilling have confirmed the grade and thickness of some of the deeper mineralisation in the model and has indicated extensions to the known ‘high-grade’ gold zones. Furthermore, mineralised composites have been tested for the impact of High pH Leaching with results very much in line with our new metallurgical model.
A mining study has commenced to assess the potential for a small underground mine and assess the trade-off between open pit and underground mining at Sihayo.”
Sihayo Gold also notes that drilling focused on deeper zones within its gold resource and that these deeper zones fall within the inferred Mineral Resource category and are not included in the current ore reserve estimate due to insufficient drilling data.
In addition, further results returned from high pH (caustic) leach testing on composites from the recently completed drilling campaign are in line with and validate the new caustic leach recovery model, with results from 10 of the 12 composite samples returning gold recoveries between 63% and 84%.
Sihayo Gold is a mineral exploration and development company with gold projects located in Indonesia. The company’s Sihayo Starter Project is prospective for sulphide-refractory gold mineralisation and represents the most advanced project within the greater Sihayo-Pungkut 7th Generation Contract of WorK (CoW), currently boasting a Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 24Mt at 2.0g/t for 1.5Moz of contained gold. The CoW is located about 80km southeast from the Martabe Gold Mine in North Sumatra within the Republic of Indonesia.
With results from the recent drilling campaign now received, Sihayo Gold announces that it will move forward with using the updated metallurgical model to refresh the pit optimisations for the Sihayo and Sambung pits in conjunction with the underground study.
Images: Sihayo Gold Limited & iStock
