Unigold reports drill results from Candelones in the Dominican Republic, which underline project's potential

Unigold Inc (CVE:UGD) (OTCQX:UGDIF) (FRA:UGB1) has released more exploration drill results from its Candelones project at the Neita concession in the Dominican Republic, which underline the property’s potential.

The results hail from 17 holes, with assays for 12 more still pending, and were focused on testing prospective anomalies at six areas around the already defined Candelones resource. These are the Connector zone, Extension West, East and North, the Montazo zone and the so-called Eastern Oxides area.

Notably, at Extension East, eight holes were sunk along a 200 meter (m) strike length to the east of the Candelones Extension, and expanded the surface sulphide mineralization.

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The holes returned broad intervals of low to moderate gold values, with the material shallow, and sustained intervals above 0.50 grams per ton (g/t) gold suggesting that the mineralization has the potential to increase both the oxide and near-surface sulphide resources, noted the firm.

Results from the area included an interval of 18m starting at 159m depth showing 1.19 g/t gold and 1.96 g/t silver, 0.06% copper and 0.98% zinc. Also hit was 46.2m at 0.95 g/t gold and 1.26 g/t silver.

Meanwhile, at the Connector zone, which lies between the Candelones Main mineralization and the Candelones Extension, another eight holes tested anomalies east of the currently identified oxide resource.  These identified a possible volcanic vent and returned elevated copper and zinc grades over broad sustained intervals, said Unigold. Other results at Connector included 5 metres (from 290m depth) at 1.72 g/t gold, 1.66 g/t silver, 0.02% copper and 0.14% lead.

At Extension North, one hole was sunk to test an area 800m north of the Candelones resource envelope. Higher grade intervals of 1m to 2m with chalcopyrite veining assaying between 0.5% to 1.5% copper were intersected, said the firm.

As reported in April this year, Unigold published a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for the Candelones oxide asset, which showed compelling enough economics to consider the project as a stand-alone operation.

The PEA showed a pre-tax net present value (NPV) of US$50 million, based on average annual payable gold production of 31,000 ounces (oz) with all-in-sustaining costs (AISC) of US$744 per ounce. The oxide operation would provide near-term cash flow as the company continues to expand and evaluate the larger sulphide resource, which it reckons offers a longer-term development opportunity, it said.

On May 13, the company unveiled an updated resource estimate for Candelones, which showed measured and indicated resources of 24 million tons averaging 1.50 g/t containing 1.158 million ounces of gold.

Unigold is mainly focused on exploring and developing its gold assets in the Dominican Republic.

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