Matador Mining Ltd (ASX:MZZ, OTCQX:MZZMF) has kicked off its inaugural winter drilling program at the Cape Ray Gold Project in Newfoundland, Canada, as it seeks to add to the project’s considerable gold bounty.
The first-ever winter program maintains the company’s aggressive exploration at Cape Ray and will comprise 30 diamond holes for 3,000-4,500 metres.
The work will focus on a corridor encompassing the PW East, Stag Hill, Isle aux Morts and Benton prospects along the Cape Ray Shear Zone.
Winter challenges
Executive chair Ian Murray said: “I would like to congratulate our exploration team and our service providers for the hard work they have put into the planning and preparation of this inaugural winter drill program.
"As with all exploration programs, safety and environment are front of mind. With a winter program, new potential challenges need to be planned for, which our team has done well during the preparation for this program.
"In 2021, we commenced the largest ever drill program at the highly prospective Cape Ray Gold Project, with 20,681 metres of diamond drilling completed during the year. However, winter conditions in Newfoundland typically halt traditional drilling for a few months.”
“Aggressive pace”
"To mitigate this, our inaugural winter drill program, which consists of around 30 diamond holes for 3,000-4,500 metres, will allow Matador to maintain the aggressive pace of exploration that we have established at Cape Ray, during what is typically a period of inactivity in the field,” the chair said.
Purpose of program
The program has been designed to:
- Investigate surficial geochemistry and magnetic anomalies at PW East and along the untested northern margin of the Central Zone mineral resource which hosts 526,000 ounces at 2.2 g/t gold;
- Follow up on results of the 2021 surficial and auger geochemistry and magnetic anomalies at Stag Hill;
- Drill test the brownfield depth extensions and greenfield targets proximal to the Isle aux Morts deposit identified at the end of the 2020 diamond drill program, including IAM-SW; and
- Follow up on results of the auger drilling, diamond drilling, surficial geochemistry and magnetic anomalies at Benton.
Winter program target locations in relation to the Exploration Camp and detailed magnetics.
Year-round news flow
Murray added: "As the winter program then segues into our 2022 summer program, Matador will prove itself as an exploration company that can successfully and efficiently execute exploration programs in all seasons and provide investors with regular news flow throughout the year.
"I look forward to updating the market of the results from this winter drill program in due course.”
Awaiting assay results
While Matador is executing the winter drill program, the company expects to release results from 35 diamond drill holes in the 2021 summer drilling season that are pending assays.
This program included:
- 10 greenfield diamond drill holes assessing the WGHG Heart-Shaped Pond (HSP) target area. This area, just west of the main WGH mineral resource, has never been drilled, however, new power auger geochemistry delivered multi-gram bottom-of-hole gold intercepts prompting a reassessment of the area’s prospectivity;
- Seven greenfield diamond drill holes testing for along-strike extensions of the WGHG Margin mineralisation to the northeast;
- Three greenfield diamond drill holes from the Big Pond Area);
- 11 infill drill holes within the WGH mineral resource; and
- Four geotechnical drill holes for 623 metres undertaken at Central Zone.
Matador also has results pending for 1,200 conventional till samples from the Malachite Lake greenfield reconnaissance program and the remainder of the Stag Hill power auger sampling program.