Matador is taking a ‘no bull’ approach to getting the rigs fired up at its Malachite prospect in Canada. Pic via Getty Images.
Matador rounds up the rigs to get drilling on massive Malachite gold prospect in Newfoundland
Mining
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After months of hard work on the ground to define new gold targets, Matador Mining is set to get the rigs turning at the Malachite prospect at its substantial gold holding in Canada’s Newfoundland Province.
Matador (ASX:MZZ) already controls an impressive bounty of 356,000oz of indicated resources and 481,000oz of inferred resources (837,000oz) at its Cape Ray Gold Project.
It is an early mover on what is regarded as one of gold’s last frontier domains, where just 2.3Moz has been produced but where drilling activity has more than quintupled in the past five years.
At Malachite, $27 million market cap Matador boasts a prospect that could be just as if not more exciting than its Cape Ray deposits.
At 15km by 4km, the complex located on a major structural bend of the multi-million ounce Cape Ray Shear Zone dwarfs Marathon Gold’s nearby 5.1Moz Valentine Lake project in terms of its footprint.
A helicopter supported 3000m diamond drill program has now kicked off testing three areas where outcropping sulphide and quartz veins with hydrothermal alteration, common proxies for gold mineralization, have been found in mapping.
“The start of drilling at Malachite is an incredible milestone for the Company and its shareholders. The team has spent the past few months on the ground to define specific areas to drill based on the data collected in the area over the past year,” Matador managing director and CEO Sam Pazuki said.
“The Malachite area is extensive with 15-kilometres of strike and four kilometres wide and underexplored with no previous drilling to-date. Although we are very excited to achieve this milestone, we have considerable work ahead of us given the size of the target area.”
Trio of targets at Malachite
Getting into the nitty-gritty there are three priority targets at Malachite, which will all get a once over in this initial campaign.
Each has its own distinct features that point to potential gold mineralisation.
At the MAL01 target, around 3km north of the Cape Ray Shear Zone, Matador has found its best gold grain samples within the Malachite survey area, topping out at 1201 grains, equivalent to 1.93g/t with 97% pristine grains.
Nine “highly anomalous” grain samples of 10 grains or more are in the drill target area, which is coincident with a major east-north-east structure found under shallow till cover in detailed magnetics along with a 1400 by 600m arsenic geochem anomaly open to the west.
The MAL02 target to the south of the Cape Ray Shear has 11 anomalous gold grain samples, with one up to 336 grains at 1.92g/t with the most coherent gold in till anomaly of more than 1000m by 700m and coincident pathfinder elements like arsenic and bismuth.
The MAL03 target meanwhile is the strongest arsenic anomaly to date, covering an area of 1400 by 1000m, with coincident copper, lead and antimony anomalism and coherent gold grain anomalism.
While there is no guarantee, pathfinder elements like arsenic are commonly found alongside gold mineralisation.
Only a fraction
This initial drill campaign will be just the tip of the iceberg, as Matador continues to wait for rock samples collected during its Canadian summer program.
Given its scale and frontier nature, much more work will be completed at Malachite to tap its potential.
“This diamond drilling program includes about 3,000m of drilling, a modest program to test three specific areas where summer field work identified extensive areas of outcropping sulphide and quartz veining and hydrothermal alteration,” Pazuki said.
“These areas are only a fraction of the broader Malachite area and drilling is only one of several tools we will continue to use to make major gold discoveries.
“In parallel with diamond drilling, we will continue prospecting, mapping and sampling areas to continue building our pipeline of targets ahead of future drill programs.”
This article was developed in collaboration with Matador Mining, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
