The company said condemnation drilling 300m northeast of Orion intersected several zones of gold mineralisation, including a narrow quartz/sulphide vein with visible gold, and an intercept of 0.44m grading 22.7 grams per tonne.

Maritime completed four additional drill holes as 25m step outs, all of which intersected multiple similar veins and containing visible gold. Assays are pending for the step-out holes.

The company has also completed a new high-resolution, helicopter-borne geophysical VTEM survey across the landholding hosting Hammerdown, which identified several new targets including a large conductor between Hammerdown and Orion on the edge of where the new discovery was made.

"The 2021 exploration drill programme is set to begin later this month and we will be following up on Orion North and other high priority targets in the area near Hammerdown with the goal of bringing new ounces into the future mine plan," said Maritime Resources' president and CEO Garret Macdonald.

Maritime is targeting production from Hammerdown in 2022. A February 2020 preliminary economic assessment outlined initial capex of US$57.2 million for a nine-year mine averaging annual gold production of 57,900 ounces.

The company signed a letter of intent with Rambler Metals & Mining in December 2020 to purchase the existing gold circuit at the Nugget Pond metallurgical facility that formerly processed Hammerdown ore with gold recoveries of 97%. Maritime will complete a feasibility study to determine the optimal configuration to operate both the Nugget Pond gold circuit and copper concentrator concurrently and independently without any impact on Rambler's current operations.

Shares in Maritime Resources are trading at C15c, valuing the company at $47 million.