Sihayo Pungkut gold drilling to resume in late September

ASX-listed Sihayo Gold Ltd said it will resume drilling activities in its 75-percent owned Sihayo Pungkut gold project in North Sumatera in late September, following the end of the Ramadhan period and the associated public holidays, with a focus on the final phase of infill drilling.

?An infill program of approximately 3,000 meters is required to likely convert the limited amount of Inferred Resource contained within the overall JORC compliant resource into the higher Indicated category,? the company said.

The program will be undertaken with two diamond drill rigs and given the relatively shallow depth of the planned holes it is anticipated that the drilling will be completed within three months.

?Once the infill program is complete, ongoing exploration drilling shall target potential near-surface mineralization along strike from the existing JORC Resources, which could potentially be included in the early years of the current proposed mine schedule,? it said.

On May 29, a group of demonstrators, believed to be supported by the representatives of illegal artisanal miners from the region, arrived and caused significant damage to Sihayo?s exploration camp.

The company said over the past three months, its relations team has conducted over forty meetings with the key mining stakeholders including local community members, village heads, religious groups, NGO?s, local and provincial government representatives, local and provincial police and army commanders, the newly elected Bupat of Mindailing Natal, North Sumatra and the governor of North Sumatra.

The meetings have been focused on ensuring that the future activities of the company are conducted in a safe and secure environment without the risk of any further unlawful acts against the company.

The company said the final phase of the definitive feasibility study (DFS) work related to the overall metallurgical gold recoveries is progressing well.

Over 4,500 additional cyanide leach tests are being completed (1,500 completed to date) across the multiple mineralization types that make up the Sihayo and Sambung Resources and the initial results suggest that some improvement in overall process gold recoveries maybe achievable. The company expects that the metallurgical work will be completed by the end of October. (romel)