New Found Gold (TSXV: NFG; NYSE-A: NFGC) says drill results extend the strike length of the Iceberg zone with high-grade intercepts on its Queensway project in central Newfoundland.
Diamond drill hole NFGC-23-1217 cut 5.25 metres grading 19.6 grams gold per tonne from a depth of 206.2 metres, New Found Gold said in a release on Wednesday. Hole NFGC-23-1222 returned 6.6 metres grading 12.36 grams per tonne from 98.6 metres depth, and hole NFGC-23-1285 cut 4.45 metres at 21.7 grams gold from 78 metres down hole.
The results extend the strike length of Iceberg, a discovery announced in March, to 550 metres and within the corridor of the 1.8-km strike of the Keats Baseline fault zone, New Found Gold chief operating officer Greg Matheson said in the release.
“In the early days of the Queensway discovery at Keats Main, we took a very methodical approach to exploration, utilizing small step-outs to track mineralization and fully understand the structure,” Matheson said. “At Iceberg, we have taken a decidedly different approach, implementing more aggressive step-outs with the goal of more quickly grasping the scale of structure and mineralization.”
Hole NFGC-23-1285 in Iceberg East is a 375-metre step-out east-northeast of Iceberg and is interpreted to connect to Iceberg. The hole, located 500 metres east of the Appleton fault zone, is the furthest east to be drilled in the zone. Hole NFGC-23-1217 is a 110-metre step-out west-southwest of Iceberg.
New Found Gold shares rose more than 5% by mid-day in Toronto, reaching $6.02 apiece, in a 52-week window of $4.03 and $7.60, valuing the company at $1 billion.
Vancouver-based New Found Gold’s Queensway project is among several held by explorers around Gander in a central Newfoundland exploration surge. Labrador Gold (TSXV: LAB; US-OTC: NKOSF) and Exploits Discovery (TSXV: NFLD) have reported high-grade assays on properties abutting New Found Gold. Marathon Gold’s (TSX: MOZ) nearly $500–million Valentine open-pit mine and mill under construction about 200 km west of Gander is the region’s most advanced project.
The 1,662-sq.-km Queensway project covers more than 100 km of strike on two primary fault zones: Appleton and Joe Bates Pond. Mineralized zones on the site include Keats Main South, TransCanada Highway, Knob, Lotto and Monte Carlo.
The company began a 500,000-metre drilling program last year. About 60,800 metres of core is pending assay results. New Found says it has cash and marketable securities valued at $60 million to fund exploration.
New Found Gold is exploring both sides of the Appleton fault after results in November showed new life on the west side. Drill hole NFGC-22-960 at the Keats West area intersected 42.6 grams gold over 32 metres from 145 metres. On the east side, the first Queensway hole in 2019 returned 19 metres grading 92.9 grams gold from 96 metres downhole at Keats.
Love this company. It will take another 3 years to define a large gold resource in ground to get a 10 m oz resource. Anyways drilling will tell the tale.