Shanta Gold to Extend Life at New Luika Mine in Tanzania

Shanta Gold has announced its intention to begin a drilling campaign in a bid to extend the life of its flagship New Luika mine in Tanzania.

The Guernsey-based gold production and exploration company has also fully commissioned and is successfully operating a new Elution and Electro-winning circuit, immediately boosting production efficiency.

Shanta has embarked on 2,920 metre-drilling programme which it expects to complete within the month, with the aim of upgrading additional resources from inferred to indicated. Other exploratory drilling will take place at its Illunga target to establish if the high grade ore body is open at depth.

Seven holes have been completed to date at Luika with positive mineralisation noted in all holes.

The Elution and Electro-winning circuit has provided immediate dividends, improving gold recoveries by two percent and silver recoveries by 40 percent, bringing in an estimated extra $1.5 million in revenues.

Mike Houston, CEO of Shanta, commented on both breakthroughs. He said: “"The commissioning of the Elution and Electro-winning plant is an important step in de-bottling this section of the process and the impact that has already been seen in terms of improving recoveries is very pleasing.

“Together with the soon to be commissioned crushing circuit, this gives Shanta a robust operation that has the capacity to increase throughput substantially.

“We are also making good progress on the Life of Mine extension project and the current drilling program is a key factor in further increasing the confidence level in the underground resource. Although it is still early days, the strong mineralisation seen in the holes drilled at Luika is very encouraging."