Greatland Gold upbeat on latest results from Havieron

Precious and base metals miner Greatland Gold updated the market on exploration and development at the Havieron gold-copper project in the Paterson region of Western Australia on Friday.

The AIM-traded firm reported that high-grade extensions to the Eastern Breccia, 200 metres to the south east of previous drilling, confirmed the potential for a separate north west-trending Eastern Breccia corridor to host Crescent Zone-style high grade mineralisation.

It reported its most significant result outside of the South East Crescent Zone to date at hole HAD104, with 62.5 metres at 5.9 grams of gold per tonne and 0.3% copper from 1,546.5 metres, including 49.4 metres at 7.1 grams of gold per tonne and 0.38% copper from 1,554.6 metres.

Greatland said its interpretation of the results indicated the potential for the Eastern Breccia to comprise a separate north west-trending mineralised corridor, with an alteration footprint of about 600 metres in strike, with Crescent Zone-like higher grade zones developed internal to that Eastern Breccia.

Drilling was now focussed on defining the extents of the higher-grade mineralisation, which remained open in all directions.

Growth drilling more than 250 metres below the current mineral resource estimate at the South East Crescent zone was meanwhile continuing to return high-grade results, with the company reporting the extension of the zone at depth below the current resource, where increasing mineralisation grades and thicknesses were observed from recent drilling.

Drilling was also continuing to assess the depth extents of the South East Crescent Zone, which now had a vertical extent of more than 900 metres, while drilling to test geophysical targets outside of the known Havieron system had started at Havieron North and Zipa.

Feasibility study work by Newcrest was continuing in the meantime along with concurrent studies assessing broader growth options for Havieron.

Greatland said upside opportunities were being evaluated to increase the scale and life of Havieron, as well as presenting the opportunity to adopt alternative, lower cost mining methods.

The feasibility study was still expected to be delivered in the December quarter.

“The latest set of drilling results at Havieron continue to astound with the most significant intercept reported to date outside the South East Crescent zone observed at the Eastern Breccia,” said chief executive officer Shaun Day.

“The results at the Eastern Breccia, several hundred metres away from the South East Crescent Zone where most of the drilling activity has occurred to date, confirm the potential for a new zone of high grade mineralisation.

“The Eastern Breccia is now interpreted as a separate north west trending corridor with an alteration footprint of approximately 600 metres in strike, with Crescent Zone-like higher grades inside the Eastern Breccia.”

Day said the new corridor of high-grade mineralisation was outside of the resource defined during the October pre-feasibility study, highlighting the “ongoing journey” of understanding the extent of the higher-grade mineralisation.

“In addition, we consistently observe high grade results and intersections of significant mineralisation at the South East Crescent Zone which supports the upgrade of the inferred mineral resource.

“With drill rigs all focused on growth targets and decline construction activities operating on a 24-hour schedule, there is tremendous progress in the development of this world class project and excitement in understanding the size and scale of Havieron.”

At 1131 GMT, shares in Greatland Gold were up 3.65% at 14.2p.