Recent Drilling Paving the Way for the Next Great Gold Find in Newfoundland

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Monday, October 2, 2023

The province of Newfoundland and Labrador has a long history of gold production, and it is one of the most promising jurisdictions for gold exploration in the world today. The province has favorable geology, government support, robust access to infrastructure and an experienced workforce. Probably most importantly, it has many underexplored areas, areas that are home to some significant discoveries recently, which has set off what is arguably Canada’s next great gold rush.

These discoveries have attracted the attention of mining and exploration companies, and there is now a lot of investment in gold exploration in Newfoundland and Labrador. A sampling of companies active in the region include Leocor Gold Inc. (CSE: LECR) (OTC: LECRF), Opawica Explorations Inc. (TSX-Venture: OPW) (OTC: OPWEF), Northern Shield Resources Ltd. (TSX-Venture: NRN) (OTC: NSHRF), and Gander Gold Corp. (CSE: GAND) (OTCQB: GANDF).

Northern Shield is active in greenfield exploration as an opportunity to discover a near surface, tier one asset, at relatively low cost. This approach led to the discovery of an alkaline-related gold-silver-tellurium and porphyry copper system at the Root & Cellar Project in Newfoundland. Opawica Explorations is a junior Canadian exploration company with a strong portfolio of precious and base metal properties within the Rouyn-Noranda region of the famous Abitibi gold belt in Quebec and in central Newfoundland and Labrador, where geology shows similarities to the Abitibi belt. Leocor Gold recently reported significant RAB (rotary air blast) drilling results from its drill program on the Dorset Project within the company’s Baie Verte District landholdings, located in north central Newfoundland.

On the point of RAB drilling, Gander Gold last week announced the completion of its maiden RAB drilling program at the company’s Lizard Pond (LZP) claims, part of the larger Gander South Project located in the southern range of the Gander Gold Belt, south of the Company's Mount Peyton Project. Gander Gold is a pure-Newfoundland gold play with a commanding portfolio of highly prospective land spanning 2,259 square kilometers in the province.

Take note of the RAB drilling strategy as it dovetails perfectly with the exploration methodology of Gander Gold, which takes advice from Shawn Ryan, one of the most decorated gold explorers of all time. Ryan is a genius at using surveying, sampling, and other exploration tactics to cost-effectively identify targets before putting a diamond drill bit in the ground.

Now that Gander Gold has a long list of high-profile targets underscored by Ryan’s guidance, they are employing RAB drilling to better delineate the rock. RAB drilling has a number of advantages over other drilling methods. For starters, it is a relatively quick and inexpensive method of drilling. Plus, it can be used to drill holes in a variety of materials and produces minimal disturbance to the surrounding ground, making it one of the more environmentally friendly methods of drilling.

The LZP property (~10.5 square kilometers) is strategically located along the Dog Bay Line (DBL) which forms the western boundary of what is commonly referred to as the Gander Gold Belt and is approximately 13 kilometers west of New Found Gold’s (TSX-Venture: NFG) (NYSE American: NFGC) Queensway South Project. The Dog Bay Line is a major regional structure within the Exploits Subzone of Newfoundland and focus of several successful explorers, like Exploits Discovery Corp. (CSE: NFLD) (OTCQX: NFLDF) and Sokoman Minerals Corp. (TSX-Venture: SIC) (OTCQB: SICNF). New Found Gold has previously reported the presence of visible gold and several significant gold intercepts from diamond drilling in the nearby Eastern Pond area.

Gander Gold’s summer 2023 RAB program at LZP was designed to target positive soil and rock geochemistry results based on the Gold (Au)-in-soil anomaly identified in 2021-2022 and consisting of three RAB drillholes totaling 196.6 meters drilled. Soil geochemistry and prospecting located a northeast trending Au-in-soil anomaly spanning approximately 1.0 kilometer in strike in which all samples are equal to or greater than the 97.5th percentile (46.7ppb Au) of soil sampling results generated at Lizard Pond. This Au-in-soil anomaly has a strong Arsenic (As) and Antimony (Sb)-in-soil association. As and Sb are critical pathfinder elements for gold in Newfoundland. Rock geochemistry prospecting results (2022) in the area of the Au-in-soil anomaly returned numerous anomalous Au-in-rock values with notable values greater than 0.5 g/t Au and up to 1.04 g/t Au.

This work follows and complements additional RAB drilling at the company’s BLT Thwart Island project (3 RAB drill holes) and Gander North (28 RAB drill holes), with assay results now pending for all three programs. 

While investors are anticipating 2023 assay results, it is important to put this first summer of drilling into perspective, as the Phase One drill program focused on just three high priority Projects within their 2,259 sq km (872 sq mile) of claims across eight projects. In a September 21st investor call, CEO Mark Scott outlined exploration highlights and provided insight on future target areas, all situated amongst known Newfoundland gold bearing structures and active gold projects:

- Mount Peyton has never been drilled, despite being located just west of New Found Gold’s Keats zone and east of Sokoman’s Moosehead discovery. The primary target zones of Goldenrod and Golden Horseshoe both feature widespread gold-in-soil anomalies and coincident geophysical structures. CEO Mark Scott stated Mount Peyton is a lead target for Phase Two drilling.

- Gander North saw the majority of 2023 drilling, yet these first twenty-eight RAB drill holes tested only five out of fourteen total target zones identified by previous exploration work at Gander North. 

- Gander South is located in the southern range of the Gander Gold Belt, near NFG’s Queensway South and Eastern Pond discoveries. With only three drill holes testing the Lizard Pond area in 2023, CEO Mark Scott believes that 2023 RAB drilling succeeded in intersecting a number of likely gold bearing structures.

- Cape Ray 2 sits between the Long Range and Cape Ray faults in southwestern Newfoundland and is contiguous to Matador Mining’s adjacent nearly one-million-ounce deposits.  Gander’s Cape Ray 2 Project deposit, with its ideal host rocks and gold-in-soil anomalies, has yet to be drilled.

- BLT / Thwart Island has delivered provocative soil samples, highlighted by its highest grade sample at the Islander zone of 5.94 g/t gold-in-soil.

Following the success of this season’s RAB drilling, Gander Gold is well positioned to initiate its first ever diamond drill program on its properties. Gander Gold is as transparent about keeping its shareholders abreast of the strategy as it is aggressive in its exploration programs. As mentioned, President and CEO Mark Scott on September 21st hosted an interactive investor webinar where he succinctly laid out the recent successes and go-forward plans, while fielding stakeholder questions. A recording of the webinar is available at https://gandergold.com/webinar/.

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