Santana Minerals (ASX:SMI, NZE:SMI) said assays from ongoing drilling at the Rise and Shine deposit at its Bendigo-Ophir gold project on the South Island of New Zealand returned high-grade gold mineralization beneath the current pit designs, according to a Wednesday Australian and New Zealand bourse filing.

It encountered significant intercepts of 27 meters at 2.3 grams per tonne grade of gold from 153 meters, as well as seven meters at 5.9 g/t grade of gold from 86 meters.

Two geotechnical holes were extended during the drilling through to the ore horizon, and they intersected narrow zones of mineralization extending into the planned open pit walls. This included a significant intercept of four meters at 10.5 g/t grade of gold from 240 meters.

These mineralized zones lie outside the current resource model and provide further upside potential, the firm noted.

Its shares inched up 1% in recent trading on the Australian bourse and rose 3% on recent trading on the New Zealand bourse on Wednesday.