Australia-based Mining Group Ltd. is continuing to demonstrate the highly prospective nature and potential scale of its Comval Project in the Philippines, with two of four holes drilled at Tagpura North confirming the presence of gold rich skarns.

Zeff Reeves, Mining Group managing director, said that the drilling activities in the area have confirmed significant gold mineralization with the magnetite skarns at Tagpura North.

“These results are very exciting as this is the first time such gold rich skarn mineralization has been drilled at Comval,” he said.

Highlights from drilling of the two diamond drill holes include 12.2 meter at 2.19 grams a ton of gold, 3.56 g/t of silver and 0.33 percent copper from 19 meters, including four meters at 4.62g/t of gold, 4.3g/t of silver and 0.57 percent copper, in hole NCPDH00002; and 6.3 meters at 2.06 g/t from surface, including 2.2 meters at 4.09g/t of gold in hole NCPDH00001.

“These results indicate there is significant gold mineralization hosted within the magnetite skarns at Tagpura North,” Reeves said.

The mining executive also noted that the size of the magnetic anomalies identified are similar to that of the Tagpura East orebody, which currently hosts an Inferred Resource of 5.3 million tons comprising 37,600 tons of contained copper and 42,700 gold ounces.

Mining Group has defined four deposits with inferred resources at Compostela Valley, which have the potential to expand given the ongoing discoveries being made at the project.

“With the Tagpura North discovery, it is likely the company will add a fifth deposit to the mix,” Reeves said.

“Importantly, these gold rich skarns were uncovered in the very first two holes drilled on the prospect, indicating the potential for further discoveries. While the project is still in its early stages, the potential is evident with multiple targets identified and extensive surface mineralization,” he added.

Meanwhile, Reeves said that drilling is due to begin at the newly discovered Taub prospect by mid-January, while a further two holes are planned to be drilled at Tagpura North and an initial four holes at Taub based on the company’s current work program.

Taub is a newly discovered gold prospect about 7.5 kilometers north of the Tagpura copper deposit. In early December, Mining Group confirmed the high grade and continuous nature of the prospect with new trench sample results.

The company said that trenching delivered a best interval of 14 meters at 11.38g/t of gold and 18.06g/t of silver, and an individual rock chip result from the same trench (CCPCH00003) of 57.3g/t of gold and 122.9g/t of silver.

High grade gold mineralization has now been identified in multiple east-northeast striking quartz veins ranging in thickness from 10 centimeters to over one meter and striking over a 300 meter length and is open in both directions.