Westhaven Gold drills 1.95 g/t gold over 25 metres at Shovelnose, British Columbia

Westhaven Gold Corp. [WHN-TSXV; WTHVF-OTC] reported drill results from its continuing, fully financed drill campaign at its 100-owned, 17,623-hectare Shovelnose gold property. Shovelnose is located within the prospective Spences Bridge gold belt (SBGB), which borders the Coquihalla Highway 30 kM south of Merritt, southwestern British Columbia.

Westhaven is reporting assays for 21 holes from its continuing drill campaign at Shovelnose. An additional 31 holes (17 holes from Shovelnose, 14 from Skoonka) are in the lab pending assays.

Gareth Thomas, president and CEO, commented: “The recent drilling results at Shovelnose continue to build assurance in the continuity of gold mineralization as we move northwest at the FMN zone towards the Franz zone. The overall gold-silver endowment is growing steadily. With multiple drill holes in the lab from both Shovelnose and Skoonka, we are looking forward to many more near-term catalysts.”

Recent drilling highlights included drill hole SNR22-295 (FMN: 218.00-243.00m) that returned 25.00 metres of 1.95 g/t gold and 5.61 g/t silver, including 6.61 metres of 4.64 g/t gold and 9.36 g/t silver, including 0.71 metres of 10.05 g/t gold and 11.60 g/t silver; and 2.06 metres of 7.22 g/t gold and 16.80 g/t silver.

SNR22-285 (FMN: 73.02-99.06m) returned 26.04 metres of 1.22 g/t gold and 5.66 g/t silver, including 12.86 metres of 2.20 g/t gold and 9.69 g/t silver, including 5.24 metres of 4.21 g/t gold and 12.77 g/t silver.

SNR22-283 (FMN: 40.00-64.91m) returned 24.91 metres of 0.73 g/t gold and 3.64 g/t silver, including 6.50 metres of 2.30 g/t gold and 11.19 g/t silver, including 2.00 metres of 4.38 g/t gold and 16.59 g/t silver.

Peter Fischl, Exploration Manager, commented: “Drilling over the last two months at Shovelnose has continued to be focused on the FMN target area. Two dominant styles of mineralization continue to be encountered here at FMN, quartz vein hosted within Vein Zone 1 and post-mineral heterolithic breccia hosted, which contains fragments of quartz derived from Vein Zone 1.

“Holes SN22-283 (0.73 g/t Au over 24.9m) and SN22-285 (1.22 g/t Au over 26.0m) are recent examples of the former and hole SN22-295 (1.95 g/t Au over 25.0m) is a recent example of the latter. Step-out drilling to the northwest on 50m spaced sections at FMN continues to intercept near surface vein and breccia targets as we close the gap in Vein Zone 1 between FMN and the Franz showing, now within 150 metres.”

Peripheral Exploration Targets: Holes SN22-296, 300 and 302 belong to the component of Westhaven’s 2022 work program testing peripheral targets off the main northwest trending 4km-long ‘main mineralized’ structure (host to the South, Tower, FMN and Franz Zones). These three exploration holes were situated southwest of the main structure and evaluated the potential for veining with dips opposite to those at the South Zone – the classic ‘flower’ structure associated with epithermal deposits. Previous drilling in this area either was not at an optimal orientation or had overshot the current target. Holes SN22-296 and 300 successfully intersected mineralization (0.64 g/t Au over 3.36m in SN22-296 and 0.33 g/t Au over 3.0m in SN22-300).

Today’s results are significant because, in conjunction with those previously reported for drilling at HydBx-02 (see Press Release September 08, 2022) and elsewhere on the property (e.g. gold bearing quartz veins outcropping at the Mik/Line 6 showings, and other unsourced soil/rock geochemical anomalies), they continue to demonstrate the potential for discovery of new gold bearing structures at Shovelnose.

Detailed mapping at 1:100 scale has commenced at Franz to follow-up the recently completed stripping and washing of the showing. This work will help guide follow-up detailed surface sampling to compliment the previously completed drilling here that may eventually lead to a near surface resource estimate for Vein Zone 1 at Franz.

Westhaven is advancing the high-grade discovery on the Shovelnose project in Canada’s newest gold district, the Spences Bridge Gold Belt. Westhaven controls 37,000 hectares with four 100%-owned gold properties spread along this underexplored belt. The Shovelnose property is situated off a major highway, near power, rail, large producing mines, and within commuting distance from the city of Merritt, which translates into low-cost exploration.