(Sharecast News) - Greenland-focussed minerals developer GreenRoc updated the market on the second phase drilling programme at the Amitsoq graphite project on Monday - one of the highest-grade graphite deposits in the world.
The AIM-traded firm said all holes to date returned mineable widths, with several intersections at least as good as those obtained in the first phase drill programme.
It said the drilled extent of the deposit footprint had doubled, and remained open towards the northwest, west and southwest.
As of 14 August, a total of nine holes had been completed for a total of 1,360 metres, with all holes reaching target depths and intersecting the targeted graphite layers, extending the deposit to the west by about 100 metres and to the northwest by about 150 metres.
To date, 16 intersections of both upper and lower graphite layers greater than three metres each have been drilled, with all holes having at least one mineable graphite layer intersection greater than 5.25 metres.
Visual inspection of the drill core suggested that the intersections were similar in ore grade to the first phase results, which returned grades of up to 23.01% total carbon in graphite form in the lower graphite layer, and up to 19.83% in the upper layer.
Drilling was ongoing, with the programme expected to finish by the end of September.
The board said the drilling to date gave it "strong confidence" that a higher-tonnage, higher-category resource could be established ahead of a feasibility study.
"These drill results are highly encouraging in that we have identified graphite bodies of mineable widths in all holes," said chief executive officer Stefan Bernstein.
"Several of the intersections are as good or even better than those we obtained in our first phase drill programme in 2021, thus confirming the significant thickness of both the upper and lower graphite layers, whilst our visual inspection of the drill core suggests that the intersections are similar in ore grade.
"We are therefore hopeful to see similarly very high grades of graphite from the analytical work, which will be undertaken following the completion of the drill programme."
Bernstein said the preliminary drill results were "particularly exciting", as most of the holes were placed further west of the holes drilled in 2021, suggesting a "substantial extension" to the graphite layers and indicating that the deposits were still open down-dip and to the northwest, west and southwest.
"Alongside this, we are currently drill testing the northern extension of the graphite layers, the results from which we look forward to sharing in due course.
"One final but very positive point is that the core is mostly very solid, which bodes well for stable mine construction as we look to advance Amitsoq to development status."
At 0840 BST, shares in GreenRoc Mining were up 4.26% at 4.9p.
Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.
Greenroc Mining (GROC)