Greatland Gold PLC has announced the successful completion of the WA Government Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) co-funded drilling program at the Meadows gold prospect within the Ernest Giles project. The drilling program involved two diamond core (DD) holes, which returned anomalous mineralisation of 8m @ 0.12g/t Au from 316m in EGD006, associated with alteration and anomalous pathfinder geochemistry. These results provide crucial geological and structural information for planning a systematic reverse circulation drill program later this year to test highly prospective targets at the Meadows prospect.
Shaun Day, Greatland Managing Director, expressed excitement about the project, stating, "Ernest Giles is an exciting 100% owned project that sits outside our strong foothold in the Paterson region, in an underexplored Archean greenstone belt that hosts many Tier 1 deposits." The completed drilling program provided critical geological understanding of the project and guided future targeting.
The results confirmed that gold anomalism is hosted within altered basalts, banded iron formation (BIF), and syenite. The mineralised zone of 8m @ 0.12g/t Au from 316m in EGD006 is associated with thin quartz-carbonate veinlets in silica-sericite-chlorite and albite alteration in the basalt host. The company also noted an encouraging broad, weak (Au-Ag-Cu-Zn) mineralisation, indicating the potential edge of a larger system.
Greatland Gold PLC is planning a follow-up RC drilling program for H2 2024, utilizing the information gained from the recently completed drilling and historical drilling results. Additionally, a detailed ground induced polarization (IP) survey is being planned for later in 2024 to refine the targeting approach. The company also intends to conduct airborne geophysics to better understand the geology of the entire Ernest Giles belt.
The Ernest Giles project, located approximately 250km north-east of the town of Laverton, covers a folded belt of magnetic greenstone rocks, typical of the highly gold and nickel endowed parts of the Archean Goldfields of Western Australia. Greatland's tenure at Ernest Giles comprises a comprehensive holding over what they consider the most prospective near-surface portions of the Ernest Giles belt, covering more than 1,950km2.
In conclusion, the results of the drilling program at Ernest Giles have provided encouraging initial results, confirming the prospectivity of the project. The company is now planning further exploration work, including a more extensive drilling program and additional surveys to refine targeting and better understand the geology of the area.