In an attempt to increase the confidence in the resource base at its 30%-owned Hot Maden project in Turkey, Mariana Resources (LN:MARL) has drilled its best hole to date at the gold-copper asset.

Already hosting 3.43 million ounces of gold-equivalent resources in the indicated category (average grade of 12.2g/t), Hot Maden is one of the highest-grade discoveries made in the past few years and the latest assays have only reinforced that fact.

The standout assay was a 69.6m intercept grading 62.7g/t Au and 2.68% Cu from 210m depth. Within this was a 7m interval from the “ultra high-grade zone” at Hot Maden, which averaged 526g/t Au and 3.28% Cu.

In addition to this stonking hit at the Hot Maden Main Zone, the company also drilled a few deep intersections at the southern end of the zone, which indicate the resource could expand in this direction.

This included a 7m interval grading 19.7g/t Au and 2.1% Cu from 351m depth and 33m averaging 1.4g/t Au and 0.99% Cu from 357m depth.

The next update from the company at Hot Maden is likely to come in the form of a preliminary economic assessment, due at the end of next month.

Created from Mining Journal