Ernest Giles Land Access Agreement

Greatland Gold PLC

20 September 2023

 

Greatland Gold plc (AIM: GGP)

E: [e-mail]

W: https://greatlandgold.com

: twitter.com/greatlandgold

NEWS RELEASE | 20 September 2023

Ernest Giles Land Access Agreement

First agreement by the Manta Rirrtinya Native Title Holder

On-ground exploration at Ernest Giles to resume as a priority

Expansion to the current granted exploration licences

Greatland Gold plc (AIM:GGP) (Greatland or the Company) is pleased to announce entry into a Land Access and Mineral Exploration Agreement (LAA) with the Wakamurru Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC (Wakamurru), acting on behalf of the Manta Rirrtinya Native Title Holders, for tenement areas within the Company's Ernest Giles project on the Manta Rirrtinya exclusive native title determination area.

Highlights

§ LAA is the first land access agreement that the Manta Rirrtinya Native Title Holders have entered into since their native title determination in 2018

§ Greatland can now resume and expedite on-ground exploration activities on our high priority Ernest Giles project

§ First target is the Meadows prospect with a Government of Western Australia Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) drilling grant approved and cultural heritage surveys underway

§ Greatland's LAA with the Manta Rirrtinya People is structured to provide significant benefits to the local community

§ New applications in September 2023 represents approximately a 35% expansion to the current granted exploration licences securing a comprehensive holding over the Ernest Giles belt

Greatland Managing Director, Shaun Day, commented: "We are very pleased to announce the completion of our Land Access Agreement with Wakamurru which sets in place a mechanism for the Manta Rirrtinya People to benefit from exploration by Greatland on their country. I would like to thank the Wakamurru Board for their efforts in bringing this agreement to fruition and look forward to building a strong relationship based on mutual respect and cooperation."

"This LAA provides Greatland with exploration access to the highly prospective Ernest Giles tenements. Ernest Giles has been a long-standing priority for Greatland as an underexplored Archean greenstone belt. Ernest Giles will now resume its place as a high priority project within our exploration portfolio."

Land Access Agreement

Greatland has entered into the LAA with Wakamurru, representing the Manta Rirrtinya Native Title Holders, covering the majority of the land within the Ernest Giles project (refer Figure 1 below).

The LAA provides for Wakamurru's consent to the grant of tenure to, and land access by, Greatland over approximately 75% of the Ernest Giles project area.

The LAA provides for employment, training and procurement opportunities for the benefit of

Wakamurru and the Manta Rirrtinya community.

Wakamurru and Greatland have established a cooperative relationship, enabling them to negotiate this LAA that promotes heritage protection of the area and provides benefits to the local community, whilst providing Greatland with the land access certainty required to undertake its exploration programs. 

Overview of the Ernest Giles project

The Ernest Giles project is located approximately 250km north-east of the town of Laverton and covers a folded belt of magnetic greenstone rocks (Figure 2) typical of the highly gold and nickel endowed Archean Goldfields of Western Australia. The Goldfields host large gold camps such as Kalgoorlie, Leonora, Laverton, Mt Magnet and Jundee. The prospective greenstone sequence at Ernest Giles does not outcrop and, as a consequence, is underexplored relative to the remainder of the Goldfields.

The cover sequence ranges from around 120m to more than 300m across the broader project area. Moderate to deep reverse circulation (RC) drilling is expected to provide an effective test of bedrock across most of the tenure.

Greatland's granted and under-application tenure at Ernest Giles covers more than 1,950km², and includes a new application in September 2023 that represents approximately a 35% expansion to the current granted exploration licences, securing a comprehensive holding over what Greatland considers the most prospective near surface portions of the Ernest Giles belt. Over 75% of the Company's granted and under-application tenure is covered by the new LAA. 

Prior to the discovery of Havieron in 2018, Ernest Giles was Greatland's highest priority project. The Company has previously completed 62 RC holes for ~17,000m and 4 diamond holes for ~1,300m of diamond drilling.

Prior work focused on the Meadows prospect, with a program of 800m spaced RC drilling.  All holes intersected Archean bedrock inclusive of prospective banded ironstones, mafic intrusives and dacites, all of which are known gold host rocks within the Archean greenstones of the Yilgarn Craton. Moderate gold results of up to 2g/t Au were recorded, and these are considered highly encouraging given the wide spaced nature of this first phase drill testing.  The first on-ground activities under the new LAA will again focus on the Meadows prospect (Figure 3), with two EIS co-funded diamond holes following up on anomalism in the previous RC drilling.  

Ongoing work will include airborne geophysics to better understand the geology of the entire Ernest Giles belt and prioritise targets, prior to systematic drill testing of the resultant priority targets.

Figure 2: Yilgarn Craton Goldfields and Archean Greenstones

Contact

For further information, please contact:

Greatland Gold plc

Shaun Day, Managing Director  |  [e-mail]

Nominated Advisor

SPARK Advisory Partners

Andrew Emmott / James Keeshan / Neil Baldwin  |  [phone]

Corporate Brokers

Berenberg  |  Matthew Armitt / Jennifer Lee  |  [phone]

Canaccord Genuity  |  James Asensio / George Grainger |  [phone]

SI Capital Limited  |  Nick Emerson / Sam Lomanto  |  [phone]

Media Relations

UK - Gracechurch Group  | Harry Chathli / Alexis Gore / Henry Gamble  |  [phone]

Australia - Fivemark Partners  |  Michael Vaughan  |  [phone]

About Greatland

Greatland is a mining development and exploration company focused primarily on precious and base metals.

The Company's flagship asset is the world-class Havieron gold-copper project in the Paterson Province of Western Australia, discovered by Greatland and presently under development in joint venture with ASX gold major, Newcrest Mining Limited (which is the subject of an agreed takeover by Newmont Corporation that is ongoing).

Havieron is located approximately 45km east of Newcrest's existing Telfer gold mine. The box cut and decline to the Havieron orebody commenced in February 2021.  Significant progress continues with the exploration decline with total development at over 2,600 metres in early August 2023.  Subject to a positive feasibility study and Decision to Mine, Havieron may leverage the existing Telfer infrastructure and processing plant.

Greatland has a proven track record of discovery and exploration success and is pursuing the next generation of tier-one mineral deposits by applying advanced exploration techniques in under-explored regions. Greatland has a number of exploration projects across Western Australia and in parallel to the development of Havieron is focused on becoming a multi-commodity miner of significant scale.

About Reach Announcements

Reach is an investor communication service aimed at assisting listed and unlisted (including AIM quoted) companies to distribute media only / non-regulatory news releases such as marketing messages, corporate and product information into the public domain. An RNS Regulatory announcement is required to be notified under the AIM Rules for Companies.

 

END