By THE AFRICA BAZAAR Staff Writer
Helio Resource Corp. a Canadian exploration company said it has commenced a diamond drill program to test the down plunge extensions of three high-grade zones identified within the Kenge resource at the company-owned SMP Gold Project in Tanzania.
The Kenge resource area is located 6 km east of Shanta Gold’s high-grade New Luika mine and currently contains 8.7 million tonnes grading 1.33g/t Au for 370,000 ounces of contained gold and Inferred 2.5 million tonnes grading 1.28g/t Au for an additional 100,000 ounces of gold.
The company plans to drill four holes to confirm and expand the new geological model and identify potential to rapidly increase the size and overall grade of the deposit. Holes will test the Main, SE and Mbenge Zones of the Kenge resource area.
Richard D. Williams, Helio’s chief executive and director told The Africa Bazaar that the company is very excited about “this drill program because, if successful, it will transform the project into an asset that has strong potential to advance to a high-grade production situation very quickly. This exercise has been designed to move the SMP project into production in a short time frame, at low cost, and with a focus on higher grades.”
Williams further explained that the company went back to “relook at the Kenge resource again to identify high-grade zones within it. We have been successful in doing that, and the purpose of the current drill program is to validate the model to see if those high-grade zones continue outside of the resource model. If the drilling is successful then we will be able to see where we can quickly identify additional high-grade ounces and build a much higher grade resource.”
The results of the program are expected within the next four to six weeks.
Williams said Helio is right now focused on increasing the size of its fully owned SMP Gold Project in Tanzania and outlining the resource potential at the DGP Gold Project in Namibia.
