Westhaven Gold Corp. (TSXV: WHN) intersected high grade gold during its exploration campaign at its 17,623-hectare Shovelnose gold property in British Columbia.
The company provided an exploration update on its property on Monday, including grades as high as 3.68 metres of 17.61 g/t (grams per ton) gold (Au) and 31.49 g/t silver (Ag), including 1.65m of 27.6 g/t Au.
Westhaven reported assays for 23 holes from its fully financed and ongoing drill campaign at Shovelnose. An additional 13 holes were in the lab awaiting assays. Recent drilling had focused on newly generated peripheral targets that were off the 4-kilometer Zone One Trend.
Other highlights from the program include:
- Drilling at the Hydrothermal Breccia 2 (HBX2) extended the known mineralization by 180m, intersecting 5.51m of 0.58 g/t Au and 0.49 g/t Ag, including 1.5 g/t Au over 1.0m.
- 23 silt samples collected have assays over 100 ppb gold (Au), including 1985 ppb Au, 1440 ppb Au, 871 ppb Au, 328 ppb Au, 282 ppb Au.
- Recent prospecting, approximately 3 kilometres (km) southeast of the South Zone, has uncovered a showing of tuff containing fragments of hydrothermal quartz, within 150m of a gold soil anomaly. Grab sample assays are pending.
- MIK hole SN23-362 intersected 2.44m of 3.43 g/t gold and 15.65 g/t silver, including 0.44m of 12.9 g/t Au and 73.2 g/t Ag.
Shovelnose is situated in the Spences Bridge Gold Belt (SBGB) 30 kilometers to the south of Merritt, British Columbia.
In addition to testing new targets and benefiting from an enhanced understanding of controls on vein emplacement, Westhaven re-evaluated historic drill results on the Shovelnose Property.
Drill testing resulted in the identification of a shallow, moderately west-dipping vein system that returned an initial result of 17.61g/t over 3.68m. The vein system was encountered in all eight new holes drilled at MIK and extended over a strike length of approximately 120m, remaining open to both the north and south.
Zoomed in map of MIK drilling. Image via Westhaven Gold.
Read more: Calibre Mining publishes open pit gold estimate for Cerro Volcan Gold, Nicaragua
Read more: Calibre Mining expands high-grade gold mineralization zones within Limon mine complex
Exploration activities: multiple drilling targets and geological assessments
Westhaven conducted an active exploration campaign at Shovelnose, involving multiple drilling targets and geological assessments.
In the Hydrothermal Breccia No. 2 target area, drilling commenced this year, building upon previous results from the prior year, which included gold assays of up to 3.28 g/t Au over 0.92m in SN22-249.
Three out of four holes in this year’s campaign encountered quartz veining similar to those in gold-bearing vein zones from the previous year. This year’s drilling extended a zone of quartz veining southward for approximately 180 meters from hole SN22-257, with gold values ranging from 0.58 g/t Au over 5.51m to 1.39 g/t Au over 1.2m.
The Franz Zone saw detailed geological mapping and systematic surface sampling, covering an area of approximately 240m2. While analytical results were pending, past surface grab sampling yielded up to 51.1 g/t gold.
Recent exploration drilling at the Franz Zone reported significant gold intercepts, such as 39.42 g/t gold over 12.0m in SN22-333, and 14.66 g/t gold over 24.95m in hole SN23-337. Future plans for Franz include surface sampling of the western outcrop exposure, additional shallow delineation drilling and preliminary metallurgical testing.
Additionally, twelve holes were drilled at the company’s Kirton Target, situated 2 kilometers southwest of Vein Zone 1 on the western part of the Shovelnose property.
While drilling successfully intersected quartz veining, no significant gold results were obtained. Similar results were found at the Odlum Target in the centre of the Shovelnose property, except this time the drilling focused on magnetic lows with anomalous arsenic and gold soil geochemistry.
Westhaven’s exploration efforts also included a comprehensive silt sampling program covering the entire property. This efforts of the initiative yielded stream sediment anomalies to the east and southeast of the vein system, which so far remain unexplored by drilling. The company investigated these findings through soil sampling.
Westhaven shares remained flat at $0.215 on Monday on the TSX Venture Exchange.
joseph@mugglehead.com
