LONDON (Alliance News) - Alecto Minerals PLC Tuesday said that Centamin PLC has decided to make its initial expenditure commitment at the Aysid Metekel Gold Project as part of an ongoing joint venture between the two companies.
The gold mining company said that Centamin will now proceed to satisfy its initial expenditure commitment following the completion of initial reconnaissance at the project, which included fieldwork from two base camps and the collection of approximately 3,450 soil samples, 200 stream samples and 350 rock chip samples which have been submitted for independent assaying.
As part of the joint venture agreement Centamin is required to fund exploration costs of USD3 million over a two year period in order to maintain an initial 51% interest in two Ethiopian gold projects held by Alecto Minerals, with USD1.2 million in exploration work to go towards the Aysid-Metekel site.
Alecto also noted that Centamin has now completed 2,500 metres of drilling across 14 holes at the separate Wayu Boda Gold project in Ethiopia, representing approximately 80% of the planned initial drill programme.
All drill holes at the Wayu Boda site have hit a major shear zone and core samples have been submitted for independent assaying, while previous studies by Alecto at the site have returned notable grades of up to 47.4 grams per tonne of gold.
Alecto Minerals shares were up 1.2% to 0.860 pence on Tuesday.
By Tom McIvor; tommcivor@alliancenews.com; @TomMcIvor1
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