Stratex International, the AIM-listed gold miner, saw shares shoot up today following its announcement of "significant results" from drilling at its Megenta hot spring gold discovery in Ethiopia.

The company said that it had found new high grade samples at the nearby Akehil gold prospect.

Stratex International, along with its partner Thani Ashanti, said the latest drilling data confirmed bonanza grades were present in epithermal veins in the region and in response its shares jumped 12 percent higher.

Stratex said results from hole MG-DD-10 were "highly encouraging" with broad near-surface zone of 43.55 metres grading at 0.67 grams per tonne of gold.

Highlights included high grade gold of 3.56 grams per tonne over 2.9 metres and 8.27 grams per tonne over 0.3 metres.

Stratex, which has drilled 13 holes over the area, said that the newly drilled zone correlated with the wide zone of 33.3 metres graded at 0.54 grams per tonne of gold in hole MG-DD-09.

In addition, the two grab samples it took from the Akehil prospect, near the Megenta discovery, returned 16.0 grams per tonne of gold at 57.3 metres.

David J Hall, executive director of Stratex International   East Africa, said that the new discovery would continue to yield significant results. He said that it was a promising new play at a time when the gold price was rising and projects of that calibre and scale were very rare.

Source: Interactive Investor