"Drilling at Keats is delineating a high-grade, near-surface zone with significant extent and size potential. We are continuing to step out on it to the north, to the south, and to depth," New Found president Denis Laviolette said this week.
The company said while Keats mineralisation remained open in all directions, "we have observed a clear trend in the highest grade material forming a zone with a shallow plunge to the south along the Keats Baseline Fault".
"Assay results received from drilling to date have outlined an approximate 115m strike length of a thick, high-grade zone of gold mineralization at Keats. Logging and interpretation of drill core in step out holes to the north and south of this 115m interval have expanded the potential continuation of this zone to at least 260m of strike. This target zone remains open in both directions along strike and to depth."
Laviolette said 2km north of Keats at the Lotto zone step-out holes appeared to be delineating a new shallow zone of high-grade gold. And it will soon start drilling at Knob, 2km south of Keats, where a former Noranda resource is seen to have "significant room for expansion".
"Additional drills are being mobilized to the site to double the rig count from four to eight with the increase focused on exploring some of the more than 15 high-grade gold zones along the Appleton and JBP faults and the many kilometers of strike along these fault zones that have not been drill tested to date," Laviolette said.
"Numerous high-grade boulders and float samples located along the parallel JBP fault, 5km to the east, have yet to be sourced and recent geophysical interpretations are pointing toward a number of targets along a twelve kilometer section of this fault that warrant drilling."
With C$72 million in the bank New Found Gold has the funds to put its foot down hard on the accelerator.
It has a strong group of backers including Palisades Goldcorp (33%), Eric Sprott (18%), Novo Resources (11%), Rob McEwen (7%), other institutional ownership (8%), and management, directors, and insiders (4%).
Trading in New Found Gold shares (TSXV:NFG) was cold on Thursday, with the share price falling about half a per cent to C$3.38, which capitalises it at about $509.5 million (US$401 million).
