(Sharecast News) - Serabi Gold updated the market on its regional exploration campaign at the Palito complex in the Tapajos region of Para State in northern Brazil on Monday, reporting significant progress and findings.
The AIM-traded firm said the induced polarisation (IP) programme conducted in December over the São Domingos property identified a substantial chargeability anomaly measuring one kilometre long by 0.25 kilometres wide.
That anomaly, which underlay several areas of artisanal activity, showed promise for potential mineral deposits.
Following up on that discovery, a wide-spaced auger programme was undertaken, with holes spaced about 100 metres apart and reaching depths of up to seven metres.
Notable intercepts from the programme included one metre at 18.46 grams of gold per tonne, two metres at 0.18 grams of gold per tonne, and several others, indicating the presence of gold mineralisation in the area.
Furthermore, significant progress was reported in interpreting the extensive soil geochemistry database, covering over 70% of Serabi's permit portfolio.
That effort led to the identification of multiple geochemical alteration systems, including the Copper Hill, Ganso, and Calico targets, among others.
Recent drilling at the Ganso Target, located 13 kilometres northeast of the Matilda copper target, suggested the presence of an upper alteration zone typical of a copper porphyry system, opening up new possibilities for both epithermal gold and porphyry copper-gold mineralisation.
Moreover, recent diamond drilling at the Matilda target demonstrated mineralisation extending to over 150 metres depth, with the final hole intercepting significant mineralisation, including 144 metres at 0.26% copper and 0.06 grams of gold per tonne, and 32 metres at 0.40% copper and 0.10 grams of gold per tonne.
"The new IP geophysics and soil geochemistry results, combined with the historic high-grade results from 2021, make São Domingos a highly compelling target," said chief executive officer Mike Hodgson.
"This new data set has helped us understand better the past successful drilling results of 2021.
"We have revised our initial geological interpretation and are a significant step closer to identifying the source that has supported extensive artisanal workings in the area."
Hodgson said Serabi had only just started "unlocking" the potential of the district, adding that the discovery of the alkalic porphyry style copper-gold deposit at Matida was highly significant for the district and for the company.
With more targets defined, he said the firm was conscious of the need to continue focussed exploration with the objective of demonstrating the viability of at least one target.
"Whilst Vale have, during this week, informed us that they wish to withdraw from the exploration alliance, we do have a number of other groups keen to partner with us on the exploration for copper mineralisation.
"We remain excited, and these other companies seem to share our optimism, for discovering commercial copper porphyry mineralisation in our Tapajos tenements.
"We have very much enjoyed working with Vale and from Serabi's perspective achieved a key objective of significantly advancing our understanding of Matilda as well as identifying other potential targets for copper porphyry mineralisation during the past 12 months."
At 1027 BST, shares in Serabi Gold were down 3.6% at 67p.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
Serabi (SRB)