Columbus Gold (TSX: CGT) has made a high-grade gold discovery at the Maripa project in French Guiana, the company announced. Columbus has an option to acquire up to a 70% interest in Maripa.
Shares of the Vancouver-based miner jumped more than 3% to a four-week high on Friday. The company’s market capitalization currently sits at C$26.2 million.
Prospecting has identified numerous artisanal mine workings 800 metres to the south of the past-producing Changement mine, located within the northern part of the Maripa property.
The company notes that sampling of stockpiles extracted from the mine workings returned 15 assay values above 1 g/t gold, including seven high-grade values of 115.70 g/t, 42.60 g/t, 15.51 g/t, 83.48 g/t, 14.70 g/t, 68.43 g/t and 29.57 g/t.
The newly identified gold mineralized zone is interpreted to be distinct from the Changement mine and remains completely unexplored.
“Field work in the Filon Dron and Changement areas in the last few months has already uncovered two new gold mineralized structures with high-grade potential. The initial work confirms that the local geological setting is highly prospective and underexplored,” president and CEO Rock Lefrançois said in a media release.
Maripa adjoins to the south the Boulanger project being developed by Reunion Gold, where a recent high-grade discovery was reported.