Gatling Exploration (TSX-V:GTR, OTCQB:GATGF) Inc has announced a new National Instrument (NI) 43-101 compliant global mineral resource estimate for its 100%-owned Larder gold project located in Ontario’s Abitibi greenstone belt, which showed 388,000 ounces of gold in the Indicated category plus 933,000 Inferred gold ounces at an average grade of 2.4 grams per tonne (g/t) and 4.2 g/t, respectively.
The company said the resource estimate incorporated the full drilling database available, including 237,000 meters (m) of historical drilling and 58,000m of new drilling completed by Gatling between January 2019 and July 2021, on the Fernland, Cheminis, and Bear deposits.
“Overall, we are very pleased with the current result, which includes nearly 30% of the resource ounces in the Indicated category, despite the exploration team being hyper-focused on expansion and step-out drilling through the 2019-2021 exploration programs,” Gatling Exploration CEO Jason Billan said in a statement.
READ: Gatling Exploration set for further metallurgical tests to optimize gold recovery from Larder deposits as it unveils preliminary findings
“More importantly, with a current mineral resource model in hand, we are well-equipped to identify and concentrate on the further growth potential at Fernland, Cheminis and Bear in the near-term, with a goal of advancing the property into the multi-million-ounce category, which would rank it quite favorably amongst the group of gold development projects currently progressing in the world-renowned Abitibi greenstone gold belt,” Billan added.
Gatling noted that its exploration work at Larder has reaffirmed the presence of one continuous gold mineralized system with three high-grade mineral resource estimates spanning a 4.5 kilometer (km) strike length on the southeastern side of the property, with “significant room for resource growth.”
It added that the two main gold mineralized trends across the three gold deposits are shear-hosted gold and gold-bearing quartz carbonate veins, with mineralization having been traced from surface to 1,500m depth with much of the system still untested below 800m.
As well, the company said exploration at Larder will continue through 4Q and into 2022, with drilling at the Bear deposit extending beyond the original 2021 program.
Billan anticipates that continued resource expansion and regional exploration drilling will form the core of the 2022 Larder drill program.
The Larder project area sits 7 km west of the Kerr Addison mine, which produced 11 million ounces of gold, and all of the property is accessible by truck or all-terrain vehicles on non-serviced roads and trails.
Contact Sean at sean@proactiveinvestors.com