Orosur Mining (TSXV: OMI; AIM: OMI) says diamond drilling at its flagship Anz?? gold project in Colombia returned "substantial" assays from the Pepas prospect. Drill hole PEP007 intersected 80.6 metres of 3.05 grams gold per tonne from surface, including 41.7 metres at 5.24 grams gold and 2.91 grams silver per tonne, the Toronto-based company said in a release on Friday. Drill hole PEP005 cut 36.8 metres from surface at 2.13 grams gold and 3.74 grams silver, Orosur said. Despite those holes returning "substantial gold intersections," at the site 50 km west of Medellin, the drilling faced some difficulties, the company said.
"As with several other early holes at Pepas, broken ground and difficult drilling conditions were encountered, and the hole was terminated at a premature depth of 134 metres." Pepas is 12 km north-northeast from the central APTA prospect where most drilling was done at Anz?? until early this year. Drilling was also difficult at Pupino, 4km closer than Pepas to the central APTA prospect. It was suspended after two holes during drilling "proved more logistically challenging than anticipated, especially because of the time lost for crews to walk to and from the rig from a remote camp," the company said. Orosur said it wants to build better camps there. Chief executive officer Brad George said the results are "encouraging" following the Sept. 6 report of an intersection of 3 grams gold per tonne over 150.9 metres from surface in hole PEP001. "PEP001 was clearly a spectacular result, but being only the first hole, caution was warranted," George said in the release. "We eagerly await results from better positioned holes that are currently underway to get a better sense of the scale of what appears a most exciting prospect." There isn't enough data to provide a resource estimates for Anz??, which is a joint venture with Colombian company Minera Monte ??guila, itself a 50:50 JV between Newmont Mining (TSX: NGT; NYSE: NEM,) and Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX: AEM; NYSE: AEM).London-based asset manager Hargreaves Lansdown owns 21% of Orosur, followed by Manchester U.K.'s Interactive Investor Trading with 17% and Newmont with 16%, Orosur said.
Orosur shares rose 46% in trading on Friday in Toronto to 19 ?. The stock has traded in a 52-week window of 11 ? and 27 ?. The company has a market cap of $35 million.