With the recent increase in gold prices, Xtra-Gold Resources' management views the purchase of the new rig as an important step in accelerating the company's exploration efforts with the goal of significantly expanding the maiden discovery.

The Kibi Gold Belt, which exhibits many similar geological features to Ghana's main gold belt, the Ashanti Belt, has been the subject of very limited modern exploration activity targeting lode gold deposits as virtually all past gold mining activity and exploration efforts focused on the extensive alluvial gold occurrences in many river valleys throughout the Kibi area.

Following input from the company, the new rig was custom designed and manufactured by Odyssey Drill Rigs of North Bay, Canada. It incorporates an Atlas Copco CS1000/P4 model drill mounted on a Morooka MST800 crawler and is projected to be able to drill to a depth of approximately 700m.