Ernest Giles - Expanding Scope for Exploration

RNS Number : 3908Z

Greatland Gold PLC

14 March 2017

 

14 March 2017

Dissemination of a Regulatory Announcement that contains inside information according to REGULATION (EU) No 596/2014 (MAR).

Greatland Gold plc

("Greatland" or "the Company")

Ernest Giles - Expanding Scope of Exploration Activities

Greatland Gold plc (LON:GGP), the London Stock Exchange AIM listed precious and base metals exploration and development business, is pleased to provide shareholders with an update regarding its exploration activities at the Ernest Giles gold project.

Highlights

·     Following the recent drilling programme at Greatland's 100% owned Ernest Giles project, which successfully identified two new large zones of gold mineralisation, Greatland's geology team has conducted an extensive review of multiple exploration targets across the Ernest Giles project;

·     Based on this review, the Board of Greatland has decided to undertake a comprehensive gravity survey across large parts of the Ernest Giles project and to trial a passive seismic technique at several high priority targets;

·     The key objective of the comprehensive gravity survey is to provide greater clarity to our many high priority targets across the 1,000 square kilometre project area, thereby further enhancing future drill location planning;

·     Greatland intends to commence the gravity and passive seismic surveys within the next few weeks and aims to publish the results of the survey approximately 6-8 weeks thereafter.

Gervaise Heddle, Chief Executive Officer, commented: 'The recent review conducted by our team has highlighted the highly prospective nature of the Ernest Giles project and the large number of potential gold targets that it contains.

In order to best prioritise exploration across multiple attractive targets, we believe that it is important for Greatland to invest in a comprehensive gravity survey of large portions of the Ernest Giles greenstone belt. We are also attracted by the potential of passive seismic to provide us with a reliable  'depth to basement' estimate and general basement topography at our high priority targets.

We would like to note that both gravity and passive seismic surveys are relatively inexpensive when compared to full-scale drilling campaigns, and we believe that our investment in these surveys will greatly enhance the targeting of future drill campaigns.'

Callum Baxter, Chief Technical Officer, commented: 'Gravity surveys are an integral part of large scale exploration efforts for gold mineralisation, particularly in covered terrains, and the data will provide us with more detail on our many targets at Ernest Giles. Gravity information combined with passive seismic, airborne magnetics and deep sensing geochemistry will enhance our ability to 'see through' the cover sequences and better direct our drilling efforts.

In addition to providing us with valuable information regarding new gold targets, we will also use the information from these surveys to refine our drill targeting efforts at the Empress and Meadows areas. The recently announced drilling programme at Empress will be re-scheduled once we have the results from these surveys.

Our view remains that the Ernest Giles project has the potential to host several major gold camps and we hope that these surveys will further demonstrate the potential of this vast and virtually unexplored greenstone belt.'

Overview of Ernest Giles Project

The Ernest Giles project is located in central Western Australia, covering an area of more than 1,000 square kilometres that includes over 120km of strike of gold and nickel prospective rocks. The area is covered by desert sands and sediments, making it virtually unexplored. The region is home to several successful exploration discoveries such as Tropicana (AngloGold ASX:AGG), which contains over 7 million ounces, and Yamarna/Gruyere (Gold Road Resources ASX:GOR), with over 6 million ounces. The Company is targeting large +5m ounce deposits and clusters of several camp-type +1m ounce gold discoveries at Ernest Giles.

Earlier drill programmes by the Company at Ernest Giles intersected gold mineralisation and large alteration systems in wildcat drilling of blind structural targets defined by detailed airborne geophysics. This was considered a major achievement for such a large prospective area with virtually no historical work.

In late 2016, the Company completed a comprehensive broad spaced RC drilling programme at Meadows in the south-east of the project area which tested several large areas based on work completed by the Company and earlier work by Western Mining Corporation. This RC drill programme comprised 23 holes for 5,581m. Hole locations were based on a broad spaced grid pattern of 1,600m x 800m.

Mineralisation was observed in 13 of the 23 holes and several holes exhibited gold anomalous zones over tens of metres, peaking at 0.78g/t gold with mineralisation at end of hole. Two large zones of mineralisation were identified; Western 6km x 1.5km and Eastern 2km x 1.5km. Additional 1m sampling of several intercepts was undertaken to confirm preliminary results and better define mineralisation with many significant gold results returned up to 2g/t. Results confirmed mineralisation is present over a large area at Meadows and suggest that Greatland has discovered a new gold province in this largely unexplored region.

In late 2014, the Company completed a restricted programme of Mobile Metal Ion (MMI) surface geochemistry over several target areas which were outlined from interpretation of detailed aeromagnetics. Sample spacing was at a nominal 800m x 200m. Results from this sampling were positive over the Meadows area (peaking at 68ppb gold), and also at the Empress area. At Empress many samples returned +5ppb gold, which is quite high for MMI results, plus several above 40ppb gold peaking at 338ppb gold at the eastern extremity of three consecutive sample lines potentially outlining a significant anomaly 3km long by 1km wide which remains open to the east.

It should be noted that the Ernest Giles project area covers over 1,000 square kilometres and is host to a number of other high priority targets such as Wishbone (a high priority structural target), and Maple (a coincident MMI and structural target in the west of the project area).

Following a recent comprehensive review of gold targets and mineralisation over the large project area the Greatland board believe that more information is required to prioritise drilling efforts. A comprehensive ground based gravity survey will be undertaken over the majority of the licence area to better define structural and lithological features. Ground gravity station spacing will be initially set at 800m x 400m and will take approximately four weeks to complete. Also, a relatively new passive seismic technique will also be undertaken to provide reliable basement profiles in areas of interest and this is likely to take approximately two weeks to complete at a variable station spacing as required.

Combining our detailed aeromagnetics with deep sensing geochemistry, ground gravity and passive seismic will provide us with an enhanced ability to generate and priorities drill targets thereby making our exploration efforts more cost effective. The drilling programme at Empress will be re-scheduled once we have incorporated the results from these surveys into our drill planning. Our successful efforts to date have highlighted the potential of the Ernest Giles project to host several very large mineralised systems.

Additional information on the Ernest Giles project can be found on the Company web site at www.greatlandgold.com/projects

Competent Person:

Information in this announcement that relates to exploration results is based on information compiled by Mr Callum Baxter, a director of Greatland Gold plc, who is a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and Australian Institute of Geoscientists. Mr Baxter has sufficient experience relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which has been undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined by the 2012 Edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (the JORC Code) and under the AIM Rules - Note for Mining and Oil & Gas Companies. Mr Baxter consents to the inclusion in the announcement of the matters based on their information in the form and context in which it appears.

 

Enquiries:

Greatland Gold PLC

Callum Baxter/Gervaise Heddle

Tel [phone]

Email:  [e-mail]

www.greatlandgold.com

SPARK Advisory Partners Limited (Nominated Adviser)

Mark Brady/Sean Wyndham-Quin/James Keeshan

Tel [phone]

SI Capital Limited (Broker)

Nick Emerson / Andy Thacker

Tel  [phone]

Notes for Editors:

Greatland Gold plc is London listed (LON:GGP) natural resource exploration and development company with a current focus on gold and nickel exploration projects.  

The Company has five main projects; three situated in Western Australia and two in Tasmania.  All projects are 100% owned by Greatland or Greatland has the right to take 100% ownership.  

Greatland is seeking to identify large mineral deposits in areas that have not been subject to extensive exploration previously.  It is widely recognised that the next generation of large deposits will come from such under-explored areas and Greatland is applying advanced exploration techniques to investigate a number of carefully selected targets within its focused licence portfolio.

The Company is also actively investigating a range of new opportunities in precious and strategic metals and will update the market on new opportunities as and when appropriate.

Note: This announcement contains inside information which is disclosed in accordance with the Market Abuse Regulation.

 

END

 

 

MSCLIFLAVTISLID