White Cliff Minerals Ltd. said Aug. 10 that it discovered a new gold zone at its 90%-owned Aucu gold project in northwestern Kyrgyzstan, near the three zones found at the property's Eastern Gold Zone in May 2016.

The remaining 10% stake in the property is owned by associates of a local Kyrgyz management team that is free-carried to the completion of a bankable feasibility study.

The new zone was identified in a bulldozer cut while clearing a drill pad, with channel sampling returning highlights of 3 meters true width at 24.8 g/t of gold and 4 meters at 6.5 g/t of gold on the two road cuttings.

A rock chip sample of the same structure also yielded a grade of 23 g/t of gold, the company noted.

The Eastern Gold Zone now comprises four sub-parallel shear zones hosting significant gold mineralization, which will be drill tested over a 150-meter strike length. Once the orientation of the structures is confirmed, further drilling will be carried out to enable a resource estimate.

White Cliff reported updated resources at Aucu in April, outlining inferred resources of 1.8 million tonnes at 5.2 g/t gold for 302,000 contained ounces, as well as a new copper resource.

The company has mobilized a second reverse circulation drill rig to the site, with drilling on the Eastern Gold Zone expected to start shortly.