Greatland Gold upbeat on latest drilling at Havieron

Precious and base metals exploration and mining company Greatland Gold updated the market on the drilling campaign at the joint venture Havieron gold-copper project in the Paterson region of Western Australia on Thursday, with drilling activities since the last update including new results from the growth drilling programme.

The AIM-traded firm said those results further supported the potential for resource expansion of the project.

It said the latest results comprised seven new drill holes from the growth drilling programme, with all holes intersecting “significant” mineralisation.

Newcrest had now completed a total of 184,081 metres of drilling from 212 holes to date.

The growth drilling continued to confirm extensions to the high-grade South East Crescent and the Northern Breccia mineralisation below and around the initial inferred mineral resource estimate.

Hole HAD138 at Northern Breccia reported 84.5 metres at two grams of gold per tonne and 0.05% copper from 683 metres, Including 12.7 metres at six grams of gold per tonne and 0.01% copper from 685.3 metres.

Growth drilling was progressing into the 2022 financial year, with a further 15 holes completed with samples awaiting assay, which were expected to be received and reported in the company’s next update.

Those holes were targeting the North West Crescent and Northern Breccia, with that zone of initial focus aimed at providing support for the potential expansion of the existing inferred mineral resource.

They were also targeting the Eastern Breccia, where drill testing and interpretation of the geological and mineralisation controls was ongoing.

At the South East Crescent and Breccia, they were targeting potential resource definition of extensions below the existing resource shell, and lateral extensions adjacent to the existing high-grade resource shell.

New targets had been identified outside of the immediate vicinity of the Havieron deposit, but within the Havieron joint venture area, with the potential to conduct drill testing in the future, Greatland said.

“There is a tremendous amount of activity and excitement with the progress across the Havieron gold-copper project,” said chief executive officer Shaun Day.

“In addition to the intensity of the drilling programme, the decline development is now maintaining 24-hour operations and the surface support infrastructure is nearing completion.

“The drilling programme keeps on delivering with every hole continuing to hit significant mineralisation while also growing the scale of the project.”

Drilling had identified several “exciting” results from the South East Crescent, Day said, extending the high-grade mineralisation beneath the initial inferred resource estimate.

“The ongoing success from each set of drill results builds confidence in the world class nature of the Havieron gold-copper project and its potential to expand.

“This de-risks the project as we progress it towards potential production and adds further upside to the value of the deposit.

“With 15 intersections awaiting assay, the volume of information available is expected to significantly expand with our next update as we continue to grow our understanding and scale of the Havieron gold-copper project.”

At 1158 BST, shares in Greatland Gold were down 2.11% at 18.6p.