Trident Royalties says drilling shows potential for increased resource at Lake Rebecca project

Trident Royalties PLC (LON:TRR) said that drilling at the Lake Rebecca gold project in Western Australia, in which it owns a 1.5% net smelter royalty, has shown potential for “significant upgrades” to the mineral resource estimate in an update scheduled for the second quarter of 2021.

The mining royalty and streaming firm said that drilling at the Rebecca deposit to de-risk future mining studies, carried out by the project’s owner Apollo Consolidated, have returned “strong gold drill intercepts” as well as “significant new hanging-wall gold mineralisation” and “new near-surface gold mineralisation”.

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Meanwhile, Trident said new drilling results from the Duchess and Duke deposits at the project showed exploration potential for 1 kilometre of ground between the two as well as “confirming, widening and extending the known mineralisation”.

Elsewhere at the Cleo target, the firm said early-stage drilling showed “good potential for future mineral resource definition” as well as encouraging intercepts of gold anomalous zones.

Looking ahead, Trident said the mineral resource update scheduled for the second quarter is expected to show an increase in contained ounces on the maiden resource estimate delivered in February 2020, adding that drilling is continuing to test under-explored structural targets lying between the Cleo, Duchess and Rebecca deposits.

“We are delighted by the exploration progress Apollo has made at the [1mln ounce] Lake Rebecca Gold Project … Since completing the royalty acquisition on 29 October 2020, Apollo has announced some very encouraging infill and exploratory drilling results which bode well for significant upgrades in the expected Q2 2021 Mineral Resource Estimate update, and which serve to further de-risk future technical studies on the project as Apollo seeks to fast track the project into mine construction”, Trident chief executive Adam Davidson said in a statement.

“It is also encouraging to note that the royalty area shows prospectivity for the definition of further resources as highlighted by developments at the emerging Cleo deposit. We look forward to following developments at the project as drilling continues and technical studies commence”, he added.

Shares in Trident jumped 2.7% to 39p in early deals on Thursday.