Shares of Emerita Resources (TSXV: EMO) rose by about 10% in the morning as the company reported its latest, high-grade drill results from the Romanera deposit at its wholly-owned Iberia Belt West project in southwestern Spain.
Highlights of the results from drill hole LR002 included 14.3 metres grading 7.61 grams gold per tonne, 311.1 grams silver, 0.4% copper, 2.9% lead and 3% zinc starting from 134.2 metres, including 7.8 metres grading 9.74 grams gold, 372.9 grams silver, 0.6% copper, 2.7% lead and 0.7% zinc.
The deposit has seen previous exploration, but the gold potential of some portions of the deposit was overlooked, according to Emerita.
"We had a sense from reviewing certain of the historical data that the deposit could be enriched in precious metals," said the company's CEO David Gower, in a press release. "Most of the upper part of the deposit as delineated by historical drilling was never assayed for gold. This presents significant upside potential even within the area."
Located adjacent to the border with Portugal, about 170 km west of Seville, Emerita won the mining rights of the project through bidding in 2020. The project includes three polymetallic deposits, including the Infanta, El Cura, and Romanera.
Mining activity in the area dates back to Roman times. In the 1990s, the deposit was drilled by Minera Rio Tinto and has a historical resource estimate (not compliant with NI 43-101) of 34 million tonnes grading 0.42% copper, 2.2% lead, 2.3% zinc, 44.4 grams silver per tonne and 0.8 gram gold, within which there is a higher-grade resource of 11.2 million tonnes grading 0.4% copper, 2.47% lead, 5.50% zinc, 64.0 grams silver and 1 gram gold.
"There are some historical intercepts with anomalous gold and silver values, but this potential appears not to have been systematically evaluated by the historical work. There are a lot of drill intercepts to come," said Joaquin Merino, president of Emerita.
In the morning shares of Emerita Resources were trading at $1.4, up 13 ? or about 10%, within a 52-week trading range of 97 ? and $4.14.