Greatland Gold PLC (AIM:GGP, OTC:GRLGF) managing director Shaun Day has told investors that the company's recent exploration campaign at its Scallywag project has delivered "the most encouraging results to date".
The comment came as Greatland announced the results of its 2022 exploration programme at the 100%-owned Scallywag in the Paterson region of Western Australia, which is located adjacent to the company's flagship Havieron gold-copper project discovered in 2018.
One of the highlights was Hole A35RD001, targeting the A35 Prospect conductor, which intersected 2 metres (m) at 2.04 grams per ton (g/t) gold (Au) from 70m, within a mineralised gold halo of 12m at 0.48 g/t Au from 69m, noting that the interval contains wet samples and immediately precedes a missing sample. Significantly, anomalous bismuth (Bi) and other pathfinder geochemistry is associated with the intersection, Greatland added.
The results came as a result of a ground electromagnetic (EM) survey - a follow up on the 2021 programme - which confirmed and refined several EM conductor targets, testing of which commenced with reverse circulation (RC) pre-collar and diamond core drilling.
In the statement, Day noted: "At the A35 Prospect, pre-collar drilling was completed with gold mineralisation intercepted plus important pathfinder geochemistry encountered, including bismuth which is associated with the Havieron and Telfer gold-copper deposits. The high-grade silver and copper mineralisation intercepted at the Pearl Prospect, confirms the possibility of a new style of deposit being identified. The underlying deeper geophysical targets at both prospects are yet to be tested but have now been prioritised for diamond drilling in 2023."
He added: "These results, together with the continual improvement in understanding of the buried geology, stratigraphy and structure, increase our confidence in the prospectivity of the ground, and our ability to vector towards intrusion related and other styles of mineralised systems at Scallywag."
Other anomalous gold, strong silver and copper plus pathfinders identified while testing a conductor at the Pearl prospect (PPDD003) included:
- 1m @ 1,364g/t Ag and 0.35% copper (Cu) from 76m - remains open at depth
- 1m @ 0.76g/t Au and 109 parts per million (ppm) Bi from 251m
- 1m @ 0.1% Cu and 22.6ppm Bi from 418m
- 1m @ 50.9ppm Bi from 65m
Exploration work in 2022 focused on drill testing prospects and anomalies defined from previous ground EM and drilling programmes, Greatland said.
A specialised RC rig was used to drill pre-collars ahead of completing the holes with a diamond rig with the aim of improving result turnarounds. A total of eight RC pre-collar holes for 1,238m and one diamond hole with a total depth of 488.6m, for a total of 1,726.6m, were completed.
In early morning trade in London, Greatland Gold shares were 2.8% higher at 7.45p.