Matador Mining Limited (ASX: MZZ) has significantly expanded its Newfoundland exploration portfolio by staking an additional five mineral licenses at the northern extensions of the company’s current holdings, increasing its position by 50% to over 120km of continuous strike along the Cape Ray Shear.
Executive Chairman, Ian Murray, said Matador is now the largest holder of continuous ground along the Cape Ray Shear and this is the first time that such an extensive package has been consolidated under the ownership of a single company.
The company’s total holding in Newfoundland now stands at 425 sq. km.
Matador is finalising its review of exploration targets, including these additional mineral claims, to determine priority targets for the 2020 field season.
The upcoming campaign will include a greater emphasis on greenfield exploration, with the strategy being to generate a pipeline of target areas for rolling exploration campaigns in the coming years.
The Cape Ray Shear is one of the more prospective, yet under-explored gold structures in a Tier 1 jurisdiction,” Mr Murray said.
“The expansion of our land holdings further strengthens the Company’s position along this highly prospective area and is consistent with the Company’s strategy of identifying new targets along the Cape Ray Shear which will be tested in a cost effective, yet systematic manner.
“Whilst the 2020 season will see drilling continue at our brownfield targets, we also plan to significantly increase our greenfield exploration programme with the aim of building a consistent, strong pipeline of drill-ready greenfield targets for the future.
“The goal is to identify new large gold deposits within our tenements. With Marathon Gold’s 4Moz Valentine Lake project 50km to the north, First Mining’s 1.7Moz1 Hope Brook project 60km to the south-east and St Barbara’s 2Moz Atlantic Gold Project on Nova Scotia to our south, we are certainly in a highly prospective region.”
Exploration data by previous owners is currently being compiled, with data reviewed to date including rock chip sampling (see Appendix 1) and VTEM geophysical surveys. The VTEM survey overlaps Matador’s current historical airborne geophysical dataset which will allow a direct comparison of the geophysical anomalies seen in each dataset and provides strong confidence in the applicability of VTEM as a regional targeting tool.
Historical rock chip sampling comprises of 418 samples across the licence area, with the best results showing 17.1g/t Au, 58.7g/t Ag, 57% Cu, 9.4% Pb and 11.8% Zn.
