Greatland upbeat as Newcrest makes farm-in progress at Havieron

Precious and base metals exploration and development company Greatland Gold updated the market on Newcrest's drilling campaign at Greatland's wholly-owned Havieron deposit in the Paterson region of Western Australia on Wednesday.

The AIM-traded firm said drilling at Havieron had continued to expand and demonstrate the continuity of high-grade mineralisation, which now extended over a strike length of 450 metres, to vertical depths of 600 metres, and remained open at depth and to the northwest.

It said the results to date supported the potential for both high-grade selective and bulk mining methods, which were currently being evaluated.

Greatland said the best new results included hole HAD022 with 142 metres at 1.9 grams of gold per tonne and 0.38% copper from 534 metres, including 15.7 metres at 9.8 grams of gold per tonne and 0.61% copper from 572.3 metres.

At hole HAD042, it reported 124 metres at 3.9 grams of gold per tonne and 0.21% copper from 734 metres, including 17.3 metres at 19 grams of gold per tonne and 0.62% copper from 790.7 metres.

It also reported hole HAD044, which included 83.3 metres at 5.0 grams of gold per tonne and 1.1% copper from 489.5 metres, and hole HAD049 with 82 metres at 6.1 grams of gold per tonne and 0.41% copper from 461 metres.

Greatland said the next steps would see drilling activity continue to ramp up, with eight rigs now operational, and the aim of delivering a maiden resource in the second half of calendar year 2020.

It said it expected Newcrest to complete the second stage of the farm-in by the end of March, and added that a number of environmental, geotechnical and metallurgical studies were continuing in order to support a potential mineral resource estimate, and future permitting requirements.

Newcrest was investigating the potential to start an exploration decline at Havieron by the end of calendar year 2020 or early in 2021, Greatland added, along with the potential to achieve commercial production within two to three years from the commencement of decline.

“We are delighted by this sixth consecutive set of excellent results from Newcrest's drilling campaign, which continue to demonstrate the continuity of high-grade mineralisation and expand the mineralised footprint,” said chief executive officer Gervaise Heddle.

“These latest results represent one of the best sets of drilling results at Havieron since Newcrest began its exploration campaign and reinforce the potential to accelerate the timetable for commercial production.”

Heddle said that, as the Australian exploration season was beginning, Newcrest was continuing to drill Havieron at pace and would shortly complete the second stage of the farm-in.

“Meanwhile, we are planning to be very active with our own systematic exploration campaign across the Paterson, which will focus on drill testing many of the high-priority targets we identified last year.”

At 1450 GMT, shares in Greatland Gold were up 10.48% at 4.64p.