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NioGold Mining enjoyed a modest 1.3-percent share price boost Thursday with the release of results from 20 drill holes completed at its Marban deposit. Highlights include 40.42 g/t gold over 4.8 meters in drill hole MB-15-391.
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NioGold Mining (TSXV:NOX,OTCQX:NOXGF) enjoyed a modest 1.3-percent share price boost Thursday with the release of results from 20 drill holes completed at its Quebec-based Marban deposit. It ended the day at $0.39.
Those 20 holes cover a total of 6,149.5 meters, but they’re not the only ones NioGold has completed at Marban these past few months. The company is currently about 43,000 meters into a 50,000-meter program at the deposit, and to date has released results from 69 holes covering a cumulative 23,383.5 meters.
Some of the holes discussed in Thursday’s release were completed over a strike length of 150 meters in the western area of the deposit, and the company states that they “complet[e] a 25 metre-spaced drilling pattern” there. Others were drilled on two sections of the eastern portion of the deposit; those sections “are now drilled at every 25 metres.”
Highlights from the new holes include:
- 40.42 g/t gold over 4.8 meters in drill hole MB-15-391 at 110 meters vertical depth
- 25.05 g/t gold over 1.2 meters in drill hole MB-15-393 at 225 meters vertical depth
- 159.13 g/t gold over 1.0 meters in drill hole MB-15-393 at 255 meters vertical depth
- 5.83 g/t gold over 6.7 meters in drill hole MB-15-398 at 120 meters vertical depth
- 8.51 g/t gold over 9.7 meters in drill hole MB-15-406 at 225 meters vertical depth
- 16.51 g/t gold over 5.2 meters in drill hole MB-15-410 at 250 meters vertical depth
- 26.35 g/t gold over 1.2 meters in drill hole MB-15-410 at 300 meters vertical depth
Explaining the significance of those results, Robert Wares, the company’s president and CEO, said in press release, “[h]igh-grade intersections that are located outside the modelled pit shell indicate a potential for increasing the in-pit resource within an enlarged shell. Alternatively, we will follow up on these intersections for their underground mining potential, which will require additional targeted drilling.”
A successful year
Though Thursday’s news brought only a modest bump in share price for NioGold, it’s worth noting that the company is up an impressive 56 percent year-to-date.
Speaking to Resource Investing News at PDAC this past March, Dale Paruk, who handles investor relations at NioGold, explained that the company’s success is at least in part due to the relationships it’s forged. “Last summer we did a private placement with Osisko Gold Royalties (TSX:OR), and they’re very well respected in the mining area. And also three new directors have joined the company from Osisko,” he said, adding, “it’s bringing in a different class of investors.”
In terms of what’s next at the Marban deposit, NioGold said when the current drill program was launched that its goal was to “improve the current near surface resource for 100% conversion to the measured and indicated category.” Beyond that, a Phase II program has been planned for Q3 2015, but not budgeted for. The company believes that the completion of those two programs will give it enough information to complete a preliminary economic assessment at the start of 2016.
The Marban deposit is just one of three located at the company’s wholly owned Marban Block property, so it’s possible there will be further opportunities for NioGold there in the future.
Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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NioGold Mining: Gaining Attention from a New Class of Investors