Serabi Gold PLC (LON:SRB) have seen their shares rise nearly 15% as the firm gave an impressive update to the market on Monday.

Serabi Gold plc is a gold exploration and production company involved in the evaluation and development of gold deposits in Brazil.

On Monday, the firm said that diamond drilling at the Sao Chico orebody in its Palito project in Brazil “significantly” extended the resource beyond the current mine limits.

Serabi have begun a 9,600 metro step out diamond drill operational program, in the last quarter of 2019, testing the east and west continuity of the Sao Chico orebody.

Serabi added that key intercepts to the west include 21.03 grammes per tonne and 15.39 tonnes per gramme. To the east, intercepts include 16.61 grammes per tonne and 27.35 grammes per tonne.

Chief Executive Mike Hodgson praises Serabi

Chief Executive Mike Hodgson said: “This is clearly excellent news for the company. We are embarking on an aggressive surface and underground drilling programme mostly focusing in and around the Sao Chico orebody to assess its long-term potential. We have always seen the strong potential in and around Sao Chico and exploration success here is key to our next expansion plans should they be justified.”

“Our initial plan is to drill over an area, beyond the current mine workings, of up to 300 metres to the east, 500 metres to the west, and approximately 250 metres at depth,” Hodgson continued.

He added: “The company has completed approximately 20% of the planned programmes, which are expected to be concluded by the end of June. Our objective is that the drill programme will provide enough new information to allow us to commission the preparation of an updated geological resource and mineral reserve for the Sao Chico orebody during the third quarter of 2020.”

Hodgson said: “The recent start-up of the reverse circulation drilling into the large terrestrial geophysical anomalies just two kilometres to the west of the Sao Chico orebody is also very exciting. These anomalies, which we originally confirmed in November 2018, are quite spectacular when compared to the equivalent geophysical anomaly that overlies the Sao Chico orebody, which has produced approximately 75,000 ounces of gold to date.”

“In the near term, operations have continued to perform well over the last quarter of 2019, and I was at site in December for the initial testing of our ore sorter. Further calibration work will be undertaken this quarter with the manufacturer at site this month. With the ore sorter being tested during this first quarter, we expect the first quarter’s gold production to be at similar levels to 2019, with the enhanced production impact being realised from the second quarter onwards,” Hodgson added.

Serabi picks up from impressive third quarter

Serabi have continued the flush of good form into 2020, as it ended the year very strongly following a bullish third quarter update.

In the three months up to September, the gold producer confirmed 10,817 ounces of production. This showed an increase of 26% from 8,101 in the same period last year.

Serabi have publicly expressed their expectations from the final quarter, expecting figures of 40-41,000 ounces of gold reflecting a 10% rise.

In the first quarter of 2019, production tallied at 10,164 ounces whilst the second quarter saw a fall to 9,527.

Mike Hodgson CEO commented “We are delighted to report our third quarter production of 10,187 ounces of gold, which is another excellent performance and as a result the Company is very well placed to exceed 40,000 ounces of gold production for 2019 and significantly improve on the 2018 gold production of 37,108 ounces”

Brazil Miners begin to see potential

Like Serabi Gold, fellow Brazilian operator Jangada Mines (LON:JAN) have seen success in their operations.

In November, Jangada said it identified eight magnetic anomaly targets to follow further exploration operations at Pitombeiras, located in Brazil.

The firm reported that high grade vanadium, titanium and iron was found at the surface which sparked shareholder optimism. This will see pre-drilling exploration concluded by the end of the final quarter of 2019 and a three-month drilling programme to commence in January 2020.

Serabi will continue to develop their operations across 2020, which will give shareholders both excitement and optimism.

This seems like a period of really positive trading for the firm, and if 2020 continues like 2019 ended then shareholders will be thoroughly impressed.

Shares of Serabi received a 13.07% boost on Monday afternoon, trading at 78p. 6/1/20 12:05BST.