Ardiden Limited (ASX: ADV) has completed an Option Agreement with Exiro Minerals Corp securing 100% ownership of the New Patricia landholding within the Western Hub of the company’s Pickle Lake Gold Project in Canada.
The Pickle Lake Gold Project is a continuous district-scale 1,088 sq. km (108,800 hectare) gold landholding, located east of Red Lake, Ontario Canada in the well-endowed Uchi Geological sub-province and the completion of the Agreement sees Ardiden strengthen its position within the region.
The New Patricia property is surrounded by numerous currently producing and historic gold mines and is located within a region which has seen an increase in gold exploration with Evolution, Newmont, Kinross as well as numerous other exploration companies all currently active in the area.
New Patricia, includes the highly prospective Esker Gold Prospect, which was part of the company’s 2022 drill campaign.
The landholding extends over 30 km of this prospective geological setting and is directly along strike from the Golden Patricia mine which produced 619,796 oz Au @ 15.2 g/t Au between 1988-1997.
The Golden Patricia mine adjoins Ardiden’s Dorothy-Dobie Gold Prospect, where recent drilling intersected broad zones (26-38m wide) of mineralisation in a parallel secondary structure to the narrow high-grade primary structure that extends for over 60km across the company’s Western Hub.
Completion of this earn-in now gives Ardiden 100% ownership of this significant footprint in a highly prospective and underexplored land package,” Non-Executive Chairman Bruce McFadzean said.
“We are currently planning the 2023 drill campaign which intends to focus on these interesting broad zones of mineralisation identified from recent drill results from four drill holes in the secondary structure this year. These broad intersections are supported by historical drill log lithologies over several hundred metres at both Dorothy and Dobie prospects”.
In addition to multiple narrow, high-grade intercepts, 2022 drilling at the Western Hub intercepted broad, anomalous mineralised zones in the secondary structure at the Dorothy and Dobie Prospects. These secondary and tertiary structures remain open at depth and along strike with over 30km of untested ground.
2023 Exploration Programme
Ardiden’s Exploration Manager Haydn Daxter said targeting has commenced on these anomalous broad zones in conjunction with the company enlisting renowned structural geologist Leigh Rankin along with Southern Geoscience and Optiro Snowden to review the broad zones from recent and historical drilling.
“Historically we have several drill logs at both the Dorothy and Dobie prospects that display similar lithologies, continuity with semi massive to massive sulphides occurring,” Mr Daxter said.
“All historical work conducted at the Dorothy and Dobie prospects appears to have been targeting high grade and narrow mineralisation styles with selective sampling. Understanding these broad mineralisation zones at Dorothy and Dobie prospects is the key focus for the company in 2023.”
The company is currently planning a series of short drill hole targets to strategically test these broad structures to gain a better understanding of the semi-massive to massive sulphide mineralisation adjacent and parallel to the secondary structure.
In conjunction with the structural interpretation being conducted, Ardiden has also identified historical drilling in the secondary structure that currently displays lithological continuity, semi massive to massive sulphides and over seven km of untested strike length that remains open at depth.
Drilling at the Dorothy and Dobie prospects is anticipated to commence in late Q1 in 2023.