iMetal to confirm drill targets at Gowganda West, Ontario
iMetal Resources Inc. [IMR-TSXV] said Wednesday April 21 it is set to commence the 2021 phase 1 exploration program at its Gowganda West property in northern Ontario.
iMetal shares advanced on the news, rising 4.7% or $0.005 to 11 cents on volume of 191,300. The company said a technical team has recommended a surface ground truthing program of geological mapping and trenching to confirm drill targets prior to drilling that is expected to begin late in the first half of 2021.
iMetal was drawn to the Gowganda West property because is thought to host the projected eastward extension of the structural corridor that hosts the Juby deposit, which contains 1.1 million ounces of gold in the measured and indicated category and 2.9 million ounces in the inferred category.
The Juby deposit is currently owned by Aris Gold Corp. [ARIS-TSX, ALLXF-OTCQX], previously known as Caldas Gold Corp.
The Zone 1 South area of Gowganda West is located just 500 metres from the Juby deposit.
The company said Zone 1 South is easily accessible as it is adjacent to a logging road. Extensive clear-cutting at Gowganda West has helped to expose areas such as Zone 1 South as well as Zones 3A, 3B and 3C that occur several kilometres further south where chip samples returned values as high as 56 g/t gold and 2.6% copper.
Company officials have previously said they are confident that exploration crews can turn Gowganda West into “an exciting new discovery story.” That’s because of the extent of high-grade gold and copper surface showings on the property, its proximity to the Juby deposit and the lack of previous systematic exploration at Gowganda West.
Historically, Gowganda West has seen relatively little exploration. This is mainly because the property is covered by glacial overburden as well as meta-sediments.
“While the prior iMetal drill programs were successful in intersecting shorter intervals, including 2.95 g/t gold over 2.5 metres and 1.43 g/t gold over 4.6 metres, associated with longer intervals of +0.25 g/t gold, the technical team feels additional surface mapping and trenching is a prudent approach before further drilling is undertaken,” said iMetal CEO Saf Dhillon in a press release.
“The two-week mapping and trenching program will focus on extending the mineralization footprint ab both Zone 1 and Zone 3,” he said. “Equally important, the program will ground truth high priority targets generated from the 2019, Zone 1 and Zone 3 IP survey.”