Unity Metals (ASX:UM1) has confirmed significant gold intersections in drilling results from the first hole completed at the O'Phlay gold project in eastern Cambodia.

The hole forms part of a planned 21-hole, 3,000-metre diamond drilling program — the first modern drilling ever conducted at O'Phlay. Despite evidence of historical open-pit and underground gold mining at the site, no modern exploration drilling had previously been undertaken.

Managing Director Craig Mackay described the mineralisation at O'Phlay as intrusion-related gold (IRG), comparable to Unity's Ngot gold project and Emerald Resources' Okvau gold mine, located approximately 60 kilometres to the west. The Okvau operation, Cambodia's first modern commercial gold mine, has been a reference point for the country's emerging mineral sector and underscores the prospectivity of the region for intrusion-hosted gold systems.

"We are very excited about the results from our first hole in our maiden drilling at the O'Phlay project," Mr Mackay said. "Whilst we have recently discovered gold across the Ngot Project, the gold intersection of 40m at 1.9 grams per tonne (g/t) gold at O'Phlay is by far the best obtained by Unity in Cambodia to date. It demands immediate follow-up."

The initial hole was drilled directly beneath a broad zone of gold-bearing veins exposed in open pits at the Camp prospect, situated adjacent to a historical Vietnamese processing plant. The hole also tested a strong, coincident, north-south-trending GAIP chargeability anomaly.

Mr Mackay noted that two prominent GAIP chargeability anomalies have been identified in the eastern portion of the Camp prospect, collectively extending over 1.8 kilometres. "We eagerly await the results of our planned drilling along these extensive target areas," he said.

Assays are currently pending for holes two through four, with further results expected in the coming weeks, providing a near-term pipeline of news flow as the company evaluates the continuity of mineralisation across the prospect.

Given the encouraging results from the first hole, Unity intends to extend the planned drill program to follow up on the gold mineralisation both at depth and along strike. The majority of proposed drilling at O'Phlay will focus on the Camp prospect, where drilling will test a series of targets identified through recent geophysical surveys alongside the company's earlier geological mapping and geochemical sampling programs.

Shares in UM1 closed 60.0% higher at 16.0 cents, giving the company a market capitalisation of $16.98 million.