Nyota Minerals (LON:NYO), the mining group working on gold and nickel projects in Africa, has taken delivery of a fourth drill rig at its flagship Tulu Kapi gold project in Ethiopia. The move comes as Nyota ramps up the momentum to upgrade the existing resource at Tulu Kapi and delineate new areas. Currently, the project boasts an inferred resource of 1.38m ounces of gold based on 25.45 million tonnes at 1.68 grams per ton of gold using a cut-off grade of 0.5g/t of gold. An update on progress from the site is now expected in the third quarter of this year. Shares in the company responded to today's news by edging 1.3% higher to 18.5p.

The new diamond drill rig will be tasked with drilling infill and stratigraphic holes with the specific aim of upgrading the current inferred resource and providing detailed geological and structural data aimed at expanding the geological model. The three rigs currently on site are focusing on separate but complementary drilling programmes. One reverse circulation (RC) rig is completing infill drilling over the inferred resource while the second RC rig has begun the drilling of a number of high priority prospective targets which form extensions to the main Tulu Kapi orebody.

Nyota said that current progress was “excellent” with cumulative metres drilled exceeding 250 metres each day. Since commencing work at Tulu Kapi, Nyota has drilled 90 RC holes for a total of 17,000m and 21 diamond holes for a total of 4,400m. That work excludes the original 34 holes drilled by Minerva for a total of approximately 6,800m before that company was acquired by Nyota last summer. Of the 145 drilled holes, approximately 100 have formed the basis of the current inferred resource. There are 45 holes drilled but with assays yet to be received.

Melissa Sturgess, Nyota’s chief executive, said: “We are working hard to keep the momentum going and this additional drilling capacity gives us the flexibility to meet all our objectives on schedule to drive the project towards development.”

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