Alacer Gold announces positive drill results for Çöpler Saddle

Colorado-based miner Alacer Gold (TSX:ASR) (ASX:AQG) announced on Thursday new exploration results for the Çöpler Saddle shear zone, which borders the western flank of the company’s flagship Çöpler gold mine in eastern Turkey.

The initial testing of the Saddle zone consisted of 50 diamond drill holes with a strike length of more than 2 kilometres. All holes were outside of the Çöpler resource shells and planned mining areas.

The reported drill holes intersected oxide and sulphide gold mineralization, some with impressive grades and thicknesses. Notable results include: 9.65 g/t Au (oxide) over 22.6 metres; 4.74 g/t Au (oxide and sulphide) over 40.8 metres; 39.45 g/t Au (oxideand sulphide) over 5.7 metres; and 7.2 g/t Au (oxide) over 7.8 metres.

“The Çöpler Saddle is shaping up to be another outstanding near-mine exploration project and an important component of our short-term strategy to identify additional oxide ore that we can convert quickly into production by leveraging our existing infrastructure,” Alacer Gold CEO Rod Antal said in Thursday’s press release.

“With Ardich already shaping up to be a major discovery, and now with the Saddle showing potential, albeit at an earlier exploration stage, our short-term strategy is rapidly becoming a reality,” Antal added.

Shares of Alacer Gold opened 3.6% higher on Thursday. The gold miner has a market cap of approximately C$1.66 billion.