Westhaven Gold drills gold-bearing quartz vein at Certes Target, Shovelnose Project, British Columbia
Westhaven Gold Corp. [TSXV: WHN] reported final drill results from the Certes target and to provide a summary of all 2024 exploration activities at the 41,634-hectare Shovelnose gold property, situated within the prospective Spences Bridge Gold Belt (SBGB), 30 km south of Merritt, southwestern British Columbia.
It has been a full and productive exploration season at Shovelnose, with efforts focused on a range of activities including property wide prospecting, sampling, geophysical surveying and drilling as the company has worked to understand the full potential of the Shovelnose corridor, which is host to the high grade South Zone deposit (see Preliminary Economic Assessment July 18, 2023) and several other prospective zones of mineralization including the newly established Certes target, situated 11km to the southeast.
Gareth Thomas, President & CEO, stated: “Initial drill testing at Certes has validated a new epithermal target that remains open in all directions. We are very encouraged by what we are seeing in terms of pathfinder elements that are representative of the typical epithermal model. Intersecting an anomalous gold bearing quartz vein on our last hole of the 2024 exploration season on a new regional target several kilometres from our original high-grade gold discovery area gives confidence to our thesis that this Certes target area may represent the continuation of an 11km structure extending southeast from the main Vein Zone One trend (Franz-FMN-South Zone). Follow-up drilling will resume early in 2025 targeting a preserved system at depth.”
Thomas added, “We eagerly await the results of the recently completed Induced Polarization and detailed magnetic surveys at Certes and the recently discovered Corral target to the South.”
Peter Fischl, Exploration Manager, stated: “Exploration at the southeast end of the 11km long corridor of mineralization and anomalous geochemistry that includes the Certes target has uncovered a well-preserved epithermal system, now confirmed in the pathfinder geochemistry and TerraSpec (SWIR) analytical work. Six holes drilled at Certes along three fences spaced over a 2km strike length tested the upper 200m thick mercury-antimony bearing cap to this preserved epithermal system.
“The transition from high-level pathfinders such as mercury and antimony to deeper gold-associated pathfinders such as arsenic is observed in several of these holes, including the last hole drilled at Certes, hole SN24-425, located 10km southeast of the bonanza-bearing South Zone.
“This hole intersected a carbonate healed breccia vein at 237.4-245.0m depth that returned 124.8 ppm arsenic over 9.0m. Anomalous gold is present farther downhole as well, where a sphalerite bearing quartz vein and associated fault returned 0.69 g/t Au and 2.76 g/t Ag over 1.74m at 286.9-288.64m downhole. Deeper follow-up drilling is planned to test the downdip extent of these arsenic and gold bearing structures for stronger gold mineralization.”
Highlights of the Certes Drill Program: Certes drill hole SN24-425: Intersected 0.69 g/t Au, 2.76 g/t Ag, and 5% Zinc over 1.74m at 286.9-288.64m downhole; anomalous gold pathfinder elements encountered in all 6 of the drill holes; confirmation of a potentially preserved epithermal system previously mapped at surface and now extending over 2.1km of strike length and to depth; a broad zone (258-314m downhole in SN24-425) of carbonate +/- quartz veining cored by 1.0m of quartz containing 10-15% low iron “honey” sphalerite within a sulphidic vein envelope that suggests a possible intermediate sulphidation epithermal signature.
New drilling supports the interpretation of a long-lived property scale structure, potentially host to multiple gold bearing epithermal systems and opens up 10km of underexplored strike length for further exploration
Westhaven is advancing the high-grade discovery on the Shovelnose project in the Spences Bridge Gold Belt. Westhaven controls 61,512 hectares (615 km2) with four 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.