LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Vast Resources updated the market on progress at its Baita Plai Polymetallic Mine in Romania on Thursday, reporting that a drilling program targeting the area below level 18 on the Antonio skarn had returned "highly encouraging" results, in line with its expectations.
The AIM-traded firm said that to date, 692 metres of core, representing 20 drill holes, had been completed.

Assays from the initial 15 drill holes, totalling 253.8 metres of submitted sample length, had been received from the ALS laboratories located at Rosia Montana in Romania.

The drilling took place from level 18, which is 224 metres above mean sea level, and intercepted the mineralised zone at depths of up to 50 meters below that level.

Vast said the results were able to be correlated with historic underground mining assays, and a zone of high grade copper-gold-silver mineralisation, compared to more polymetallic copper-lead-zinc mineralisation, could be discerned.

It explained that the ALS laboratories noted the presence of coarse gold in sample 'BP180282', which returned a gold assay value of 9.15 grams per tonne in drill hole 'BP18_019', at a depth of 8.4 to nine metres down hole.

"The drilling is designed to provide the necessary data for a JORC mineral resource estimation of the area immediately below level 18, extending 50 metres below to the level 19 elevation, the board explained in its statement.

"This area will be the initial mining area of Baita Plai and the area outlined is expected to provide sufficient resources for a period of approximately three to four years at a production rate of 180,000 tonnes per annum."

It said that over 75% of the area being delineated did not form part of the historic official mineral resource of 1.88 million tonnes at 2.19% copper, 128 grams of silver per tonne, 3.46% zinc, 3.07% lead, and 1.41 grams of gold per tonne.

The historic mineral resource was delineated to a depth of 12.5 metres below level 18 on the Antonio skarn.

Vast said the historical mineral resources above level 18 would be validated, while the deeper area was being exploited, and where possible would be converted to a JORC-compliant mineral resource, if the data was of sufficient quality.

"Drilling is continuing on level 18, and additional deeper drilling is planned to provide intersections of the Antonio skarn at depths of between 100 to 150 metres below level 18," the directors said.

"Each 50 metres of depth represents approximately three years of mining life at a production rate of 180,000 tonnes per annum."

Following its previous announcement on 24 July, Vast also confirmed that underground operations were continuing, adding that it would provide further updates on production shortly.

"In the meantime the Company is finalising preparations in the floatation plant ahead of the first sale of Baita Plai concentrate to Mercuria, which is being targeted for the end of August [or the] beginning September, subject to sufficient quantities being ready for shipment."

At 1143 BST, shares in Vast Resources were up 1.15% at 0.22p.

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