Greatland Gold upbeat on fresh activity in Paterson region

Precious and base metals exploration and development company Greatland Gold made two announcements on Wednesday, confirming that it expected to commence a detailed, low level aeromagnetic survey over the entire Paterson Range East licence in early June, and reporting that Newcrest Operations had started drilling at its Havieron gold-copper project in the Paterson region of Western Australia.

The AIM-traded firm said that the Paterson Range East licence, E45/4928, was 100% under its ownership and lay around 25 kilometres north of its Havieron gold-copper prospect.

It said the Paterson Range East licence covered 224 square kilometres of proterozoic basement rocks prospective for Havieron-style gold-copper mineralisation.

Greatland said it would conduct a new, detailed, low level airborne magnetic survey to cover the entire Paterson Range East licence.

The survey would comprise around 5,200-line kilometres at a line spacing of 50 metres, and was expected to start in early June.

It said the new survey would “significantly” increase the resolution of approximately 20 magnetic targets previously identified across the licence, and would assist in the geological and structural interpretation of those targets.

The resulting data would be used with other geophysical and geochemical data sets to prioritise targets within the Paterson Range East licence.

High priority targets were expected to be subject to additional geophysical and geochemical work, with further detailed modelling and drill testing.

“Greatland's 2019 exploration programme in the Paterson is advancing on a number of fronts, with a detailed aeromagnetic survey planned at Paterson Range East, a 6,000 metre drilling programme expected to commence at Black Hills within the next few weeks, and Newcrest's first drilling programme at Havieron underway,” said chief executive officer Gervaise Heddle.

“The aeromagnetic survey at Paterson Range East is part of an important and ongoing process to prioritise the multiple geophysical targets that we have across our Paterson licences.

“We look forward to providing investors with more detail on the high priority targets at Paterson Range East over the next few months as we apply the knowledge gained at Havieron to our exploration efforts across the region.”

At the Havieron gold-copper project, Greatland announced that Newcrest had started drilling, with the initial drill programme comprising around 10,000 metres of drilling with the aim to define the extent of the mineralisation along strike and at depth, testing the system to a depth of 1,000 metres below surface.

All drilling was being carried out at Newcrest's expense, with Greatland expecting to continue to receive regular updates as the programme progressed.

“It is an exciting moment for Greatland as Newcrest embarks on its first drill programme at our cornerstone Havieron gold-copper project,” added Gervaise Heddle.

“The initial 10,000-metre drill programme is the most extensive at Havieron to date and we anticipate that Newcrest's technical expertise and understanding of the local geology will build upon our highly successful 2018 programme.

“We look forward to keeping shareholders updated with drill results and all other material exploration information as it is received.”

In March, Greatland signed a farm-in agreement with Newcrest Operations - a wholly-owned subsidiary of Newcrest Mining - to explore and develop its Havieron gold-copper project in the Paterson region of Western Australia.

Newcrest had the right to acquire up to a 70% interest in a 12-block area within E45/4701 that covered the Havieron target, by spending up to $65m.