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Gatling Exploration rapidly advancing high grade gold system in a prime jurisdiction

Published: 11:00 11 Jun 2021 EDT

Snapshot

The 3,370-hectare Larder gold project lies in the prolific Abitibi greenstone belt and hosts three, connected high-grade gold deposits

Gatling Exploration -
  • A high-grade gold asset with three connected deposits in the Abitibi
  • Project already has a resource estimate
  • Experienced management

What Gatling Exploration does:

Gatling Exploration Inc (CVE:GTR) is advancing its flagship high-grade Larder gold project in mining-friendly Ontario.

The 3,370-hectare asset, lies in the prolific Abitibi greenstone belt and hosts three high-grade gold deposits called Fernland, Cheminis and Bear, which in 2020, it proved, in a milestone moment, were all connected and established an impressive 4.5-kilometer strike length.

The project also includes the Kir Vit property, which was acquired in 2019, and lies 6 kilometres (km) north of the main trend that hosts the three deposits. Three mineralized gold trends have been discovered there. 

Larder lies along the Cadillac-Larder Lake Break, 35km east of Kirkland Lake - an established camp where over 70 million ounces of the yellow metal has already been generated. The project is also 7km west and on trend with the Kerr Addison mine, which has produced 11 million ounces of gold.

Mining major Gold Fields Ltd (JSE:GFI) terminated an option on the project in 2015, but significantly had already spent C$6 million on exploration, which included soil sampling, surface sampling and drilling.

Gatling benefits by having over 200,000 metres (m) of historical data to pour over along with property-wide sampling results, alongside its own ongoing drill program.

A resource estimate in 2011 showed 43,800 ounces of gold at 4.01 grams per ton (g/t) gold in the higher confidence indicated category for the Cheminis deposit and 917,000 ounces at 5.55 g/t in inferred at Bear. Notably, Gatling says 70,000m of drilling have not yet been included in the resource.

Gatling is currently focused on near-surface drill targets as well as potential at depth and is rolling out a 25,000m drill program during the first half of 2021.

How is it doing:

Late in 2020, the company revealed that director Jason Billan was stepping up to the role of chief executive and president of the company, while Nav Dhaliwal moved to the role of executive chairman.

Billan is a seasoned strategy and corporate development professional with an accelerating career in the mining industry.

In 2021, as with 2020, exploration has been the main news theme, and in January this year it had kicked off the new 25,000m drill program at Larder to target high-grade zones.

It is currently preparing to complete an updated resource estimate and conduct initial pit and/or underground stope optimization models for the three deposits. The company will also embark on a field program to investigate new targets identified during its 2020 campaign and will begin a metallurgical testing program ahead of cutting off drilling in early 3Q.

In addition since then, a second rig has been added to Larder. The drill rig will go to the Bear deposit for a 5,000m program to explore near-surface extensions from the high-grade core, which begins at around 450m below surface - particularly two developed zones up plunge around 90m depth. 

In June, Gatling received a drilling permit for its Kir Vit prospect at Larder and aims to begin exploring in 3Q of 2021. It acquired a 25% interest by issuing 150,000 shares to the vendor and certain leases on the western portion of Larder known as the Swansea zone, which means it now holds a 100% interest in all leases and claims across the property.

At the Fernland deposit - an area where much of recent drill results have come from - the group in February reported more good gold grades near-surface from drilling at Zone 2. Latest drill assays included an intersection of 170m of 1.5g/t of the yellow metal, starting from just 31m below surface.

And in April 2021, the company posted more drill results from the Fernland deposit, which, it said, were rapidly expanding the grade, continuity, and footprint of the area.

Around 9,000m of an ongoing 25,000m program have now been sunk at Fernland, while the latest assays reported were from Zone 2 and included the highest metal factor to date at all of Larder. That was an intercept of 200.7m at 1.5g/t gold, starting from a depth of just 3.3m hit in one hole.

On the financial front, Gatling in June arranged a private placement to raise gross proceeds of up to C$3 million to fund exploration operations.

Inflection points:

  • Updated resource estimate
  • More drilling and exploration results
  • Gold price moves

What the boss says:

"From a strategic perspective, the Abitibi greenstone belt has been extremely active on the consolidation front over the past 3 - 6 months, with a number of explorers and developers being acquired, consolidated, or joint ventured, suggesting that the smaller group of remaining projects held in the hands of junior companies should begin to trade at a premium relative to the sector," CEO Jason Billan said in a recent statement.

Contact the author: patrick@proactiveinvestors.com

Follow him on Twitter @PatrickMGraham

Gatling Exploration connects all three high-grade gold deposits at Larder...

Gatling Exploration (CVE: GTR-OTCQB: GATGF) Vice President of Exploration Nathan Tribble shared news with Steve Darling from Proactive Vancouver that Gatling has been able to connect a continuous 4.5 km gold strike at their Larder Project. Tribble explains how they were able to do that,...

on 09/21/2020