Ernest Giles - New Drilling Programme

RNS Number : 9460U

Greatland Gold PLC

24 January 2017

 

24 January 2017

Greatland Gold plc

("Greatland" or "the Company")

Ernest Giles - New Drilling Programme

Greatland Gold plc (LON:GGP), the London Stock Exchange AIM listed precious and base metals exploration and development business, is pleased to announce that planning has commenced for an additional drilling programme at the Ernest Giles gold project.

Highlights

·     Greatland's geology team is preparing to lodge a Programme of Work application for a comprehensive drilling campaign at the Empress gold target which lies in the north-eastern portion of the Ernest Giles project;

·     Previous surface sampling at the Empress target identified a 3km x 1km gold in soil anomaly with a peak value of 338ppb Au;

·     The Programme of Work application for Empress will seek approval for a wide-spaced RC drilling campaign, including an estimated 5,000 metres of drilling (approximately 20 drill locations);

·     The key objectives of this campaign will be to seek to explain the highly elevated gold in soil anomaly at Empress and to test for the presence of gold mineralisation in the wider area.

Gervaise Heddle, Chief Executive Officer, commented: 'We are very pleased to announce that planning has commenced for an additional comprehensive drilling campaign at the Ernest Giles project in Western Australia.

On the 12^th January 2017 and 19^th January 2017, Greatland reported results from a successful drilling campaign at the Meadows target that lies in the south-west of the Ernest Giles project. This new campaign will target a large unexplained gold in soil anomaly at the Empress target which is located in the north-east of the Ernest Giles project area (approximately 50 kilometres north-east of Meadows).

The MMI gold in soil anomaly at Empress is higher grade and potentially more extensive than that encountered at the Meadows target (peak values of 338ppb Au at Empress and 68ppb Au at Meadows), and we hope that this campaign will help us to explain the unusually high gold in soil anomaly in this part of the Ernest Giles greenstone belt.

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

At this stage, we expect relevant Government approvals to be received by the end of February and pre-drilling field operations to commence in early March.'

Overview of Ernest Giles Project and the Empress Gold Target

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.

Greatland intends to lodge a Programme of Work application with the Western Australian Government which will seek approval for a comprehensive, wide spaced, RC drilling campaign at Empress of approximately 20 drill holes for an estimated 5,000 metres of drilling. The key objectives of this campaign will be to explain the highly elevated gold in soil anomaly at Empress and to test for the presence of gold mineralisation in the wider area.

The Company will continue with planning of additional drill hole locations and further surface geochemistry along with a review of previous work. 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).

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

 

 

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