Orogen Gold shares rise on Armenia drilling results

Orogen Gold shares jumped after a positive surprise from drilling results at the Mutsk gold project in Armenia.The company signed a deal with Armenian company Georaid in January that gave it the right to undertake a confirmatory exploration programme at the Mutsk project.Orogen Gold revealed today that the confirmatory drill holes had returned substantially higher gold grades than previously reported.It said the results confirmed the discovery of a new gold mineralising system of "potential economic importance" at shallow depth.Chief Executive Ed Slowey said: "While further work is needed to fully understand the controls on mineralisation, we are particularly encouraged by the high grades and widths encountered in several of the holes and the apparently large strike extent of the system."Orogen has told its Armenian partners that it will now proceed to phase two of the programme under which it has the option to earn an 80% interest in the Mutsk project by spending a total of $2.5m on exploration by the end of August 2016.Shares in Orogen were up 9.09% to 0.48p at 15:15.TB