Headwater Gold drills 2.59 g/t gold over 20.46 metres at Spring Peak, Nevada

Headwater Gold Inc. [CSE-HWG; OTCQB-HWAUF] reported initial assay results from the continuing 2023 Spring Peak exploration drilling program, which is fully financed by Newcrest Mining Ltd. [TSX-NCM] as part of an exploration agreement announced on Aug. 16, 2022.

Highlights: Spring Peak is located in the Walker Lane belt of Nevada, immediately south of Hecla Mining Company’s past-producing Aurora Mine. Recent drilling has extended mineralization at the Disco Zone target, intercepting high-grade epithermal veins in an approximately 70 metre step-out from previous drilling.

Drill hole SP23-17 intercepted 13.0 g/t gold over 1.21 metres and 9.0 g/t Au over 3.11 metres within a broader interval of 20.46 metres grading 2.59 g/t Au in the Disco Zone target.

Drill hole SP23-17 also intercepted 27.44 metres grading 0.95 g/t Au above the Disco Zone in a newly recognized zone which may represent a parallel mineralized structure.

Mineralization remains open at depth and along strike and ongoing drilling continues to intersect epithermal veins in the target zone.

Assays from the initial four holes of the program are presented here, with the remainder of the assays pending. A multi-rig drill program is still underway at Spring Peak with 22 holes completed to date and assays pending for 18 holes.

Caleb Stroup, president and CEP of Headwater Gold, stated: “We are very pleased to announce initial results from our 2023 Spring Peak drill program. Drill hole SP23-17 represents our first step out from last year’s drilling. This drill hole encountered high-grade epithermal veins nearly exactly where our geologists expected, demonstrating continued exploration potential along strike to the northeast and down dip. SP23-17 also intercepted a new zone of shallower mineralization approximately 130 metres above the Disco Zone, which may represent the shallow portions of a stacked parallel vein system. With the majority of the assays for the 2023 program still pending from the laboratory, we very much look forward to the potential upcoming catalysts for the Spring Peak project and the Company as a whole.”

The primary objective of the 2023 drill program is to further define and expand the Disco Zone along strike and down dip at 50 to 100-metre increments. The Disco Zone is a mineralized corridor which hosts a series of high-grade epithermal veins at depth discovered by Headwater in 2022 by drilling beneath a thick accumulation of silica sinter at surface.

Earlier, Headwater’s drilling at the Disco Zone intercepted multiple discrete veins with textures indicative of boiling, including ginguro banding, silica replacement of lattice-bladed calcite and vein sediments. The highest-grade gold encountered to date at the Spring Peak project is in drill hole SP22-13 which intersected two individual veins assaying 15.92 g/t Au over 2.38 metres and 10.43 g/t Au over 2.01 metres. The highest individual assay returned 69.6 g/t Au over 0.34 metres. These intervals are part of a broader zone which assayed 2.73 g/t Au over 34.72 metres.

The 2023 drill program is targeting the same elevation horizon as the previous drilling between 150 m and 400 m below an extensive zone of silica sinter exposed at surface. Drill hole SP23-17 was the first core hole of the 2023 program and successfully extended the mineralization encountered in SP22-13. SP23-17 intercepted 13.0 g/t Au over 1.21 metres and 9.0 g/t Au over 3.11 metres within a broader interval of 20.46 m grading 2.59 g/t Au.

Mineralization in drill hole SP23-17 consists of banded quartz-calcite veins with quartz-after-bladed calcite, vein sediments, and silica cemented breccias. Several additional step out holes along strike and down dip of this intercept are either currently in progress or completed with assays pending.

Drill hole SP23-17 also intercepted a new zone of mineralization approximately 130 metres above the Disco Zone, containing 0.95 g/t Au over 27.44 metres. This new zone was intercepted in the reverse circulation pre-collar portion of the hole. Adjacent core-from-surface holes (assays pending) encountered several zones of fault gouge and sparse veining at a similar depth. Initial interpretations are that this may represent the shallow portions of a stacked Disco-Zone-parallel vein system which remains to be tested with drilling at depth.

Results have also been received for two additional holes from the Disco Zone, both up-dip of SP23-17. Holes SP23-18 and SP23-19 intercepted zones of highly anomalous precious metal mineralization in fault gouge with veins and vein clasts along the projection of the Disco Zone but did not intercept Au grades greater than 5 g/t. Initial interpretations suggest this may be due to a localized inflection in the Bear Fault plane resulting in a constricting segment of the zone.

The company is drill testing several projects in Nevada, Idaho, and Oregon. In August 2022 and May 2023 Headwater announced significant transactions whereby Newcrest acquired a 9.9% strategic equity interest in the company and entered into earn-in agreements on several of Headwater’s projects.