Greatland Gold to begin new exploration programme at Black Hills

Precious and base metals exploration and development company Greatland Gold announced a new exploration programme at its 100%-owned Black Hills licence in the Paterson region of Western Australia on Tuesday.

The AIM-traded firm said the programme would begin next week, following the receipt of drilling approvals from the Australian Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety;

It said the first phase of the programme included plans for a 3D induced polarisation (3DIP) survey covering a strike length of 1,200 metres, over the high-grade gold mineralised zone identified at the Saddle Reefs prospect during recent fieldwork, and areas immediately to the north and south of that zone.

A review of historical induced polarisation (IP) data collected at Black Hills had highlighted the potential for 3DIP geophysics to assist in outlining the orientation and depth potential of gold mineralisation that had been identified at surface, the board explained.

It said the 3DIP survey was expected to take about two weeks to complete, with survey data to be processed with modern inversion techniques to provide detailed 3D chargeability and resistivity models, which would assist with drill programme planning.

“Recent exploration success at Black Hills, including the collection of multiple pieces of gold and gold nuggets at surface, has clearly highlighted the licence's prospectivity for high-grade, near-surface gold mineralisation,” said Greatland chief executive officer Gervaise Heddle.

“The identification of visible gold at surface means that exploring Black Hills' potential will be a relatively low-cost and low-risk endeavour, but one with substantial upside potential.

“We are delighted to have Black Hills and Havieron as part of our portfolio of 100%-owned projects, and we believe that both of these high priority targets have the potential to deliver significant shareholder value in the long term.”

The company said the Black Hills licence covered 25 square kilometres in the Paterson Region of Western Australia, and lay adjacent to its Havieron licence.

Previous work by companies including Newcrest Mining had outlined several zones of gold mineralisation, in rocks equivalent to those of the large Telfer gold deposit which lay 30 kilometres to the west.