HAMPSHIRE mining company Twigg Minerals believes it may be on the brink of a major gold strike in Africa after latest test drilling.

The New Forest company has completed a 1,500 metre programme of 18 drill holes at its Miyabi gold property in Tanzania.

Miyabi lies approximately 30km south of Spinifex Gold's resource at Nyakafuru and 80km south west of Barrick Gold Corporation's Bulyan-hulu mine development.

Twigg started test drilling after "very positive results" from geophysical, geochemical and geological surveys. It has carried out extensive sampling of 91 pits on the Miyabi licence area which yielded "excellent results," with gold values of up to 54.2 grams per tonne.

Twigg chairman John Park said: "Given this limited drilling programme, management and board believes that the company stands on the brink of a major new discovery in Tanzania."

It would be a "discovery wholly attributable to the application of the company's expertise".

Twigg plans to follow up the success of this programe with a second programme of trenching and rotary air blast drilling "aimed at further target definition".

A more detailed analysis and logging of the results obtained will then be completed and followed by further drilling.

In Mozambique, Lymington-based Twigg has also achieved the formal granting of a 58,000 hectare extension to its Namama licence.

Twigg personnel are currently shipping 400 soil and 100 stream sediment samples from the company's Namama licence to Johannesburg for analysis. They are hoping this will show they have struck gold.