Drilling commences at 100% owned Ernest Giles Project
Co-funded diamond core drilling to test the high-priority Meadows gold prospect
Greatland Gold plc (AIM: GGP) advised that drilling has commenced at the Meadows gold prospect within the Ernest Giles Project (Ernest Giles).
Highlights
- Ernest Giles is an underexplored Archean greenstone belt which lies within the highly mineralised Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia
- A drill rig is on site and has commenced diamond core drilling at the highly prospective Meadows gold prospect
- Heritage surveys and mobilisation was completed safely and quickly following entry into the Ernest Giles Land Access Agreement (LAA) in September 2023
- First two diamond holes will test interpreted mineralised zones and are co-funded by the Government of Western Australia’s Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) drilling grant for up to A$220,000 (£115,000)
- Current drilling builds on previous work at Ernest Giles and will provide important geological and structural information to inform a systematic reverse circulation drill program in 2024
Greatland Managing Director, Shaun Day, commented:
“We are very pleased to be drilling the high priority Meadows gold prospect at Ernest Giles following conclusion of the Land Access Agreement.”
“Ernest Giles sits within an underexplored greenstone belt located north of the world-class Tropicana and Gruyere gold operations. As a 100% owned project, Ernest Giles represents an excellent exploration opportunity for Greatland and our shareholders.”
Overview of the Ernest Giles Project
The Ernest Giles Project is located approximately 250km north-east of the town of Laverton and covers a folded belt of magnetic greenstone rocks (Figure 1) which is typical of the highly gold and nickel endowed parts of the Archean Goldfields of Western Australia. The Goldfields host large gold camps such as Kalgoorlie, St Ives, Leonora, Laverton, Mt Magnet, Jundee, Gruyere and Tropicana. The prospective greenstone sequence at Ernest Giles does not outcrop and is therefore underexplored relative to the remainder of the Goldfields.
Greatland’s granted and under-application tenure at Ernest Giles comprises a comprehensive holding over what Greatland considers to be the most prospective near surface portions of the Ernest Giles belt, covering more than 1,950km2.
Figure 1: Yilgarn Craton Goldfields and Archean Greenstones
Figure 2: Laverton, Fraser Orogen-North and Ernest Giles greenstone belts
Figure 3: Greatland Ernest Giles Drilling on Reduced to Pole Magnetics
Current drilling program
Previous exploration at Ernest Giles included a program of 62,800m spaced vertical RC drillholes, largely focused on the Meadows prospect, in addition to airborne magnetics and ground gravity surveys.
Gold mineralisation and anomalism is hosted within altered mafic volcanic, banded iron formation (BIF) and syenite. The mafic is pyrite and albite altered with thin quartz veinlets. Hematite alteration has also been observed. The syenite comprises disseminated pyrite and may be hematite altered.
Results returned previously included a peak of 16m @ 0.36g/t Au from 182m downhole including 3m @ 1.28g/t Au in hole ERC011. Table 1 in Appendix 1 sets out all significant results.
The two EIS co-funded diamond core drill holes will provide the first angled diamond holes and oriented core at Meadows, considered critical for the geological understanding of the project.
Drill hole EG_Prop_1 targets two mineralised zones within the previous vertical RC hole ERC011 which returned values +1g/t Au (Appendix 1, Table 1) in mafic rock (Figure 4).
Drill hole EG_Prop_2 targets the interpreted syenite (intrusive granitoid) body intersected in ERC014 which returned 18m @ 0.11g/t Au (Appendix 1, Table 1).
In addition, the drilling is planned to:
- confirm gold mineralisation and anomalism intersected in previous RC drilling and test for continuity down dip;
- provide geological and structural information to understand the setting and nature of gold mineralisation;
- investigate a larger section across strike than has been possible with vertical drillholes;
- identify pathfinders for mineralisation; and
- be utilised as a platform for downhole geophysics should it be viable.
Figure 4: Planned drilling at Meadows on interpreted geology
Further work
Additional ongoing work will include airborne geophysics to better understand the geology of the entire Ernest Giles belt. A follow up RC drilling program will be designed utilising the knowledge gained from the current drilling, to systematically target the best results of all drilling at Meadows to date. This work will commence in the 2024 calendar year.
