5 February 2018
Dissemination of a Regulatory Announcement that contains inside information according to REGULATION (EU) No 596/2014 (MAR).
Greatland Gold plc
("Greatland" or "the Company")
Greatland Gold to Commence New Exploration Programme at its Ernest Giles Project
Drilling campaigns planned for Meadows, Wishbone and Empress areas at Greatland's 100% owned Ernest Giles project
Further to the announcement of 15 January 2018, Greatland Gold plc (AIM: GGP), the precious and base metals exploration and development company, is pleased to announce new exploration plans for its Ernest Giles project.
Highlights of the new exploration plans include:
· Drilling three high priority targets at Meadows, Wishbone and Empress areas;
· Prior to the commencement of drilling, Mobile Metal Ion ("MMI") surveys will be completed at the Meadows, Wishbone and Empress areas;
· Drill programme at the Meadows area will consist of approximately twenty-four RC drill holes to test the 5km x 1.5km anomaly defined by Deep Sensing Geochemistry ("DSG") work which remains untested by previous Greatland drilling;
· Up to six RC holes to be completed at the Wishbone and Empress areas to test basement geology and physical rock properties;
· Drilling preparation activities and MMI sampling at Ernest Giles will commence in Q1 2018 with drilling commencement expected in Q2 2018;
· All required Programme of Work applications for drilling have been lodged with the Western Australian Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety.
Gervaise Heddle, Chief Executive Officer, commented: "We are very pleased to be moving forward with a new exploration programme at the Ernest Giles project. This new programme follows the successful results from previous exploration conducted at the project, which strengthened our belief that Ernest Giles has the potential to host several multi-million-ounce gold deposits. We look forward to providing a further update once all approvals have been received.
"The Company expects to make further announcements regarding exploration plans at its other key projects over the next couple of months."
Overview of Ernest Giles Project
The Ernest Giles project is located in central Western Australia, covering an area of more than 2,000 square kilometres that includes over 230km of strike of gold and nickel prospective rocks. The area is covered by desert sands and sediments, making it virtually unexplored. The region is home to several successful exploration discoveries such as Tropicana, AngloGold (ASX: AGG), which contains over seven million ounces, and Yamarna/Gruyere, Gold Road Resources (ASX: GOR) and Gold Fields Ltd (NYSE: GFI), with over 6 million ounces. The Company is targeting large +5 million ounce deposits and clusters of several camp-type +1 million ounce gold discoveries at Ernest Giles.
Earlier drill programmes by the Company at Ernest Giles intersected gold mineralisation and large alteration systems in wildcat drilling of blind structural targets defined by airborne geophysics. This was considered a major achievement for such a large prospective area with virtually no historical work.
In late 2016, the Company completed a comprehensive broad spaced Reverse Circulation ("RC") drilling programme at Meadows in the south-east of the project area which tested several large areas based on work completed by the Company and earlier work by Western Mining Corporation. This RC drill programme comprised 23 holes for 5,581m. Holes were drilled on a broad spaced grid pattern of 1,600m x 800m.
Mineralisation was observed in 13 of the 23 holes and several holes exhibited gold anomalous zones over tens of metres, peaking at 0.78g/t gold with mineralisation at end of hole. Two large zones of mineralisation were identified; Western 6km x 1.5km and Eastern 2km x 1.5km. Additional 1m sampling of several intercepts was undertaken to confirm preliminary results and better define mineralisation with many significant gold results returned up to 2g/t. Results confirmed mineralisation is present over a large area at Meadows and suggest that Greatland has discovered a new gold province in this largely unexplored region.
In late 2014, the Company completed a restricted programme of Mobile Metal Ion ("MMI") surface geochemistry over several target areas which were outlined from interpretation of detailed aeromagnetics. Sample spacing was at a nominal 800m x 200m. Results from this sampling were positive over the Meadows area (peaking at 68ppb gold), and at the Empress area. At Empress many samples returned +5ppb gold, which is quite high for MMI results, plus several above 40ppb gold peaking at 338ppb gold at the eastern extremity of three consecutive sample lines potentially outlining a significant anomaly 3km long by 1km wide which remains open to the east.
In May 2017, a detailed airborne survey was acquired over the northern sequences and the newly secured Ernest Giles East block which includes an 800 square kilometre area covering a 90km long north-south trending sequence of rocks that represents a continuation of the gold prospective greenstone sequence.
In June 2017, a comprehensive ground gravity survey was completed over parts of the Western licences at a station spacing of 1,600m x 200m. Data was collected over the Empress, Wishbone and greater Meadows area. The ground gravity data integrated with airborne magnetics highlighted several additional targets conducive to gold mineralisation at each of the areas surveyed.
During September 2017, Greatland completed its initial work over the Eastern block. The Eastern block, covering 800 square kilometres, represents an extension of the gold prospective Ernest Giles greenstone sequences. Work included broad spaced ground gravity and first pass MMI sampling. Gravity work was completed on a station spacing of 1,600m x 200m while MMI samples were collected on 3,200m x 400m centres.
MMI results outlined multiple gold anomalies over approximately 60km of strike. Many anomalies present as clusters of elevated responses over several adjoining east-west sample traverses with peak responses up to 1.3ppb gold (against a background of 0.0-0.1ppb). Several anomalies exhibit a strike length in excess of 9km and up to 3km wide. Ground gravity and detailed airborne magnetics confirms the MMI anomalies lie subparallel to the regional geological strike or within cross cutting structures displaying demagnetisation of bedrock geology.
Newmont Exploration Pty Ltd carried out a Deep Sensing Geochemistry ('DSG') survey at the Ernest Giles project during 2017. DSG sampling was completed at the Meadows area and results successfully defined several gold anomalies, the most significant of which is large at approximately 5km long and 1.5 km wide in the vicinity of previous Greatland drilling which had intersected gold mineralisation in Archean basement rocks under 100-200m of cover.
Greatland intends to conduct MMI sampling on an initial 800m x 200m grid at the Meadows area over a strike of approximately 8km. Greatland also intends to conduct MMI sampling on an initial 1600m x 400m grid at Wishbone and Empress. MMI sampling will be completed in advance of a programme of RC drilling. The anticipated drill programme at Meadows will consist of approximately twenty-four holes to test the 5km x 1.5km anomaly defined by DSG work which remains untested by previous Greatland drilling. RC holes will be drilled on an initial 800m x 800m grid to depths of around 300m to 350m each. In addition, up to six RC holes will be completed at Wishbone and Empress to test basement geology and physical rock properties. All required Programme of Work applications for drilling have been lodged with the Western Australian Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety.
Drilling preparation activities and MMI sampling at Ernest Giles will commence in Q1 2018 with drilling commencement expected in Q2 2018.
Additional information on the Ernest Giles project can be found on the Company web site at www.greatlandgold.com/projects.
Enquiries:
Greatland Gold PLC
Callum Baxter/Gervaise Heddle
Tel: +44 (0)20 3709 4900
Email: [email protected]
www.greatlandgold.com
SPARK Advisory Partners Limited (Nominated Adviser)
Mark Brady/James Keeshan/Andrew Emmott
Tel: +44 (0)20 3368 3550
SI Capital Limited (Broker)
Nick Emerson
Tel: +44 (0)14 8341 3500
Luther Pendragon (Media and Investor Relations)
Harry Chathli/Ana Ribeiro/Alexis Gore
Tel: +44 (0)20 7618 9100
Notes for Editors:
Greatland Gold plc (AIM: GGP) is a London listed natural resource exploration and development company with a current focus on gold, nickel and cobalt exploration projects.
The Company has six main projects; four situated in Western Australia and two in Tasmania. All projects are 100% owned by Greatland or Greatland has the right to take 100% ownership.
Greatland is seeking to identify large mineral deposits in areas that have not been subject to extensive exploration previously. It is widely recognised that the next generation of large deposits will come from such under-explored areas and Greatland is applying advanced exploration techniques to investigate a number of carefully selected targets within its focused licence portfolio.
The Company is also actively investigating a range of new opportunities in precious and strategic metals and will update the market on new opportunities as and when appropriate.
