Australia-based copper and gold exploration and development company SolGold provided investors with an update on its Cascabel project in Northern Ecuador on Friday as its drilling focus moved towards targeting high-grade extensions to the Alpala resource.
SolGold had twelve rigs onsite and operational at Alpala and has more than 120,000m of drilling scheduled over the next twelve months.

Drill hole 33, across the orebody from northeast to southwest, returned a high-grade mineralisation extension of 824m at an average of 0.80% copper equivalent (CuEq), including 576m at 0.93% CuEq.

Hole 36 intersected an intensely mineralised diorite intrusion and was expected to extend the mineral resource down to the northeast, and hole 41, drilled from the northeast side of the deposit and collared near the Parambas anomaly, intersected very shallow epithermal mineralised vein sets between 60m and 100m depth.

SolGold also reduced drilling cost to $530 per metre from $1,100 per month.

Chief executive Nick Mather, said "The maiden resource is just the tip of the iceberg at Alpala. We are looking to substantially increase it, and focussing on high-grade expansion. The bornite rich areas at Alpala South are yet to be comprehensively tested, and I'm confident we will find a deep, rich root at Alpala."

"We plan to drill at least 120,000m in 2018, so it is pleasing to see that the new track-mounted rigs are already performing beyond expectations, delivering up to 60 metres/day each. Furthermore, the average cost for drilling has declined markedly from $1,100/metre to $530/metre," he added.

As of 1040 GMT, shares had lost 1.24% to 23.31p.

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