The results for the first 29 holes of its extended 55-hole infill drilling programme at New Liberty in Liberia have shown that some of the inferred resources - 275,000 ounces, in fact - could move into the higher confidence categories in the future. The assays that showed promise include a 26m interval grading 8.49g/t Au from 176m, a 42m intercept at 3.17g/t Au from 255m and a 24m hit averaging 2.65g/t Au from 304m. The list could go on, with more plus-10m intervals bringing back impressive grades. Serhan Umurhan, CEO of Avesoro, said the assays were helping build some exploration momentum at the company's West Africa projects. "The results from the first stage of the infill drilling programme at New Liberty have been extremely encouraging and add further momentum to the exploration success we delivered during the second half of 2017 in Burkina Faso and our 2018 goal of increasing our mineral resource inventory and subsequently increasing the mine lives at our New Liberty, Youga and Balogo mines." The company expects to produce 110,000-120,000 ounces of gold this year at New Liberty at an all-in sustaining cost of US$1,020-1,060 per ounce.