Westhaven Gold drills 17.61 g/t gold over 3.68 metres at Shovelnose, British Columbia

Westhaven Gold Corp. [WHN-TSXV] provided an exploration update on its 17,623-hectare Shovelnose gold property located within the prospective Spences Bridge Gold Belt (SBGB), which borders the Coquihalla Highway 30 km south of Merritt, southwest British Columbia.

Highlights: MIK hole SN23-360 intersected 3.68 metres of 17.61 g/t gold and 31.49 g/t silver, including 1.65 metres of 27.6 g/t gold. Five drill holes from MIK are pending assays.

MIK hole SN23-362 intersected 2.44 metres of 3.43 g/t gold and 15.65 g/t silver, including 0.44 metres of 12.9 g/t gold and 73.2 g/t silver.

Drilling at the Hydrothermal Breccia 2 (HBX2) extended the known mineralization by 180 metres, intersecting 5.51 metres of 0.58 g/t gold and 0.49 g/t silver, including 1.5 g/t gold over 1.0 metre.

Twenty-three silt samples collected have assays over 100 ppb gold, including 1985 ppb Au, 1440 ppb Au, 871 ppb Au, 328 ppb Au, 282 ppb Au.

Recent prospecting, approximately 3 km southeast of the South Zone, has uncovered a showing of tuff containing fragments of hydrothermal quartz, within 150 metres of a gold soil anomaly. Grab sample assays are pending.

Gareth Thomas, President and CEO, stated: “Drilling the highest-grade gold intercept (17.61 g/t gold over 3.68 metres, including 27.6 g/t gold over 1.65 metres) off the main Zone One Trend that hosts all the major discoveries since late 2018 adds to our conviction that the large and underexplored Shovelnose Gold Property has a lot more discoveries to be made. Not only has this additional drilling improved our understanding of the MIK target area, but it has also opened up a highly prospective area that warrants further follow up drilling in the near term.”

Thomas added, “Our technical team has been prospecting, mapping and sampling underexplored areas on Shovelnose where new showings have been discovered, including a hydrothermal outcrop approximately 3kms southeast of the South Zone along strike. We look forward to further defining these new targets with the goal to drill test them soon.”

Peter Fischl, Exploration Manager, stated: “Follow-up drilling of a historic drill hole intersection of 6.21 g/t Au over 0.4 metres (Hole 11-SH-03) at the MIK showing has now traced a north trending, moderately west dipping vein zone, over a strike-length of 120 metres as present in all eight drill holes. The zone comes within 150m of Zone One Trend, and it remains open to the north and south. The gap between MIK and the Zone One Trend is now viewed as an area prospective for additional near surface vein-hosted gold mineralization.”

An additional 13 holes are in the lab pending assays. Recent drilling has focused on newly generated, periphery targets that are off the 4-km Zone One Trend.

In addition to testing new targets and supported by an improved understanding of controls on vein emplacement, Westhaven has been re-evaluating historic drill results on the Shovelnose Property.

The Hydrothermal Breccia No. 2 target was drilled this year to follow-up the initial drilling of last year that returned up to 3.28 g/t gold over 0.92 metres (SN22-249). Three of the four holes encountered quartz veining similar to the gold-bearing vein zones encountered last year. This zone remains open to the north and south.

To complement previously completed drilling at the Franz Zone, establish a mineral resource and to potentially facilitate the collection of a larger surface sample at the 165m long vein system, detailed geological mapping has been completed. The mapping was used to guide the initial systematic acquisition of some 91 surface samples from the outcrop. Next steps at Franz would potentially be surface sampling of the western outcrop exposure, additional shallow delineation drilling and preliminary metallurgical test work.

Twelve holes were drilled on the Kirton Target 2km southwest of Vein Zone 1 on the western portion of the Shovelnose property. Drilling successfully intersected quartz veining down-dip from surface exposures, though no significant gold results were returned.

Five holes were drilled on two northeast directed profiles at the Odlum target in the central part of the Shovelnose property.

Westhaven has collected sediment samples from 268 sites throughout the property, which have returned many anomalous gold results. Close to 700 rock samples have been collected from specific areas of interest in 2023, as well as regionally throughout the property, and additional assays are pending.

In collaboration with local First Nation groups and consultants, Westhaven continues its ongoing Preliminary Field Reconnaissance (PFR) and Heritage Field Reconnaissance (HFR) studies.

Westhaven is in its third year of environmental baseline assessment. The purpose of this program is to support future permitting on the property with a focus on multi-year programs.