Greatland Gold plc (LON:GGP), the London Stock Exchange AIM listed precious and base metals exploration and development business is pleased to announce that drilling has commenced at the Bromus project in Western Australia.
Highlights
· Greatland Gold's field operations team have commenced drilling at the Bromus project;
· Bromus drilling programme will target four well defined bedrock conductors that were identified by last year's surface EM survey;
· Key objective of the circa 1,000m drilling programme is to determine the nature of the bedrock conductors and their nickel content;
· Downhole EM surveys will also be undertaken during the drill programme to determine the size and orientation of buried targets.
Callum Baxter, Executive Director, commented:'We are very pleased to have commenced drilling at our 100% owned Bromus project. We hope that this marks the beginning of an exciting phase of exploration for the Company across its existing projects, notably Bromus and Ernest Giles.
The Bromus nickel sulphide targets identified by last year's geophysical work will be tested by approximately 1,000m of RC and diamond drilling. It is anticipated that downhole EM surveys will be conducted as part of the drilling campaign in order to determine the size and orientation of any potential nickel sulphide targets.
We expect the drilling programme to be completed within the next four weeks, subject to weather conditions. However, final assay results may take longer to receive. The Board believes that it is a particularly opportune time to commence drilling given the recent rise in the nickel price.
Further announcements regarding the progress and results of drilling at Bromus will be made in due course.'
Bromus Project, Western Australia
The Bromus project is located in southern Western Australia, approximately 25km south west of the town of Norseman, and covers approximately 93 square kilometres. Several significant clusters of gold and nickel sulphide deposits lie in the region, such as those at Central Norseman, Kambalda and Widgiemooltha. Greatland owns 100% of the project.
A review of detailed airborne geophysics defined a 4.5km long, nickel sulphide prospective ultramafic, with coherent elevated surface geochemistry to 2,690ppm Ni, within the Bromus project area. Field work confirmed the presence of flow textured ultramafic lithologies and, despite the proximity to other deposits, no previous exploration for nickel sulphides is apparent. A fixed loop ground electromagnetic (EM) survey was completed over the entire 4.5km strike returning data of extremely high quality, with excellent ground penetration.
The ground EM survey data confirmed a very significant bedrock conductor in the north of the survey area. Modelling shows that the conductor is a sizeable target; it is well defined and covers 180m x 65m. Three other significant conductors have also been identified in the north and central parts of the EM survey area, with a size of approximately 100m x 80m. Modelled depth to the top of the four targets is relatively shallow, between 130m and 175m below the surface.
Such large bodies of conductive material are typically signs of sulphide deposits. The tenor (or grade) of nickel in these deposits can only be determined by drilling.
Greatland intends to drill these four conductors with an initial four diamond holes; one hole into each of the four conductors. RC pre-collars will push to near target depth then diamond tails will be completed to intersect the target zones. Provision has been made for downhole EM surveys to be completed at each of the four holes to determine size and orientation of the buried targets.
Additional information on the Bromus project can be found on the Company web site at www.greatlandgold.com/projects
Competent Person:
Information in this announcement that relates to exploration results is based on information compiled by Mr Callum Baxter, a director of Greatland Gold plc, who is a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and Australian Institute of Geoscientists. Mr Baxter has sufficient experience relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which has been undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined by the 2012 Edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (the JORC Code) and under the AIM Rules - Note for Mining and Oil & Gas Companies. Mr Baxter consents to the inclusion in the announcement of the matters based on their information in the form and context in which it appears.
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