LONDON (AFX) -- Irish gold mining firm Persian Gold PLC says it has made its first gold discovery in Iran.

The AIM-listed company said it recovered traces of gold from six of the 17 holes it recently completed drilling at the Chah-e-Zard gold project in southeast Iran.

On completion of the program, which is the company’s first in Iran, Persian said surface trenching had uncovered additional gold bearing structures and that its early stage exploration suggests it should proceed with ‘cautious optimism’. The company’s chairman, John Teeling said in a statement, “These initial drilling results are a good start to our scouting drill program and show the gold mineralization, found on the surface, extends to significant depths.“

He added that although the results were encouraging, they ‘require further work’.

Persian Gold, which has been operating in Iran for around 18 months, said the Chah-e-Zard project is an advanced stage project, ‘with very strong surface gold values over a one square kilometer area’. It is also conducting another earlier stage gold project to the northwest of Tehran.