Ardiden Limited (ASX: ADV) has commenced drilling at the company’s Pickle Lake gold project, located within Canada’s prolific Uchi belt formation in northwest Ontario.
The Pickle Lake gold project is a continuous, district-scale package of 870km2 containing at least 22 identified gold deposits and prospects and is situated east of the highly prospective Red Lake gold mining district.
Managing Director and CEO Rob Longley said the diamond rig, which is operated by First Nation owned and operated Missinaibi Drilling Services, has commenced a 4,000m campaign targeting the Company’s Esker gold prospect.
Ardiden is off to a strong start to 2022, with the commencement of drilling at our Esker Gold prospect,” Mr Longley said.
“The decision to commence at Esker reflects both the prospect’s intriguing structural setting as well as its close proximity to Barrick’s Golden Patricia mine directly along strike.
“The balance of the Pickle Lake Gold project is also exceptionally exciting as it offers numerous geological anomalies to test and a proven capacity to host large-scale gold deposits.”
Gold mineralisation at Esker is associated with the northwest-southeast trending ‘Bear Head Fault Zone’ (BHFZ) which extends over a strike length of at least 50km.
Historic exploration at Esker has been highly encouraging with significant gold intersections that have never been properly followed up, including:
- 5.35m @ 3.1g/t Au (from 80.65m in drillhole ME88006 including 24.0g/t Au over 0.3m)
- 12.03m @ 3.2g/t Au (from 29.9m in drillhole ME88008 including 13.5g/t Au over 0.9m)
- 0.30m @ 9.60g/t Au (from 108.28m in drillhole ME86005)
The Esker drill programme will seek to test two large and highly prospective structural targets; the Fold Hinge and Dilational shear. These two immediate targets are situated along the Bear Head Fault Zone which extends along the entire Western Hub and appears to be coincident with significant gold mineralisation and with the Golden Patricia Mine setting .
The Esker drill programme is Ardiden’s first major drilling campaign onto the Western Hub and a 3000m diamond drilling campaign will follow, targeting Ardiden’s Dorothy-Dobie deposits.
Dorothy Dobie has an historical estimate1 of 99,600oz Au at 5.8g/t and multiple high grade historical drilling intersections2 that have yet to be systematically followed up, including 0.5m @ 472.8g/t Au (drillhole DOR90043 from 184.10m).
