Gold and Minerals (G&M), Kefi Minerals’ 34%-owned joint venture company, has now completed Stage 2 of the Hawiah diamond drilling programme, in Saudi Arabia, thereby increasing the number of completed drill holes to 69 since October 2019, when the first drill hole was completed.

Copper, zinc, gold and silver sulphide mineralisation have been intercepted in drilling consistently over more than 4 km in strike length, with intercepts within the supergene zone of up to 4.4% copper over a 6 m true width interval, including 5.8% copper over a 3 m true width.

These results, the gold exploration and development company said on May 27, “reaffirm the large-scale volcanic massive sulphide style of mineralisation” that underlies the more than 4-km-long surface gossanous ridgeline.

Assays have been received for 59 of the 69 drill holes and confirm the positive progress towards delineating an initial mineral resource in accordance with the Joint Ore Reserves Committee Code in mid-2020.

Sufficient drilling has now been completed to identify three zones with the following preliminary parameters for potentially mineable massive sulphide lodes, with all zones remaining open at depth, the company said.

The combined volume of these lodes in the sub-vertical structure drilled to date is still considered likely to exceed 12-million tonnes in aggregate based on the results to date.

Exploration potential remains significant at depth below all areas, Kefi added, noting that drilling has also extended the gold-mineralised oxide zone from surface.

The company will also continue to assess further resource potential at Hawiah, given that drilling to date has yet to establish the extremities of the mineralisation at depth and along strike.

Kefi executive chairperson Harry Anagnostaras-Adams says that “Hawiah already appears to have a more valuable metal content than Tulu Kapi in Ethiopia as we have only drilled the top of the system, which remains open at depth below all zones drilled to date”.

In addition to its development activities in Saudi Arabia, Kefi is also developing its 95%-owned Tulu Kapi project.