PanAust said latest drilling to the north of Ban Houayxai had returned broad intercepts of higher-grade gold and silver mineralisation. Hole HDD017 returned 98m at 3.3 grams per tonne gold and 18.4gpt silver from 176m, including 20.6m at 11.5 gpt gold and 62.5gpt silver, while hole HDD016 hit 56m at 3gpt gold and 94.7 gpt silver from 88m.

The results will buoy PanAust’s hopes of defining further primary gold ounces with Ban Houayxai, in northern Laos.

The project already has 199,000 ounces of gold in oxide mineralisation grading an average 1 gpt gold, as well as 130,000 ounces of gold in primary material grading 1.2gpt, with both resources defined to a vertical depth of 60m.

PanAust corporate development manager Joe Walsh told MiningNews.net the silver grades detected in the latest drilling could prompt the company to re-examine the resources already in place, as the drill cores used to calculate those resources were not assayed for silver.

Meanwhile, Walsh said he was not prepared to comment on speculation in today’s Australian Financial Review that Crosby Capital Partners may be eyeing a bid for PanAust.

PanAust’s flagship asset is the Phu Kham copper-gold project, which is scheduled to move into production in the first half of next year.

Shares in PanAust were up 1.5c to 74c in early afternoon trade.