Athena Gold (CSE:ATHA) says it has made a ‘high-grade’ greenfield discovery during maiden drilling at its flagship Laird Lake Project in Ontario’s Red Lake district, Canada.
In early July, Athena completed its first-ever drill program on the project after spending two years systematically advancing it through sampling and geophysics. The program consisted of a total of 5,134m across nine diamond drill holes.
Assays for one hole just came in, showing 23.85 grams per tonne gold over 5m near surface. Within the intercept are ‘higher-grade’ intervals of 62.9g/t and 54.1g/t, both over 1m.
“This is a genuine grassroots discovery on ground that has still seen such little drilling,” says CEO Koby Kushner.
This new discovery, which the company named the Scooby Zone, is located near the Balmer-Confederation contact, a well-studied structure within the Red Lake gold district.
According to Athena, this structure is known to host most of the Red Lake district’s gold production and has been traced for greater than 10km at the Laird property.
Since the late 1920s, the Red Lake gold district has produced approximately 30 million ounces and is now widely regarded as one of the highest-grade gold camps in the world, with many significant discoveries of note.
Kushner says the company’s discovery represents “the best gram-metre hit within a roughly 10km radius, with the next closest being at the Madsen Mine and the Great Bear Project.”
In addition, the company notes that the Scooby Zone was also intersected in a large step-out at a vertical depth of approximately 400m, demonstrating continuity of the gold mineralisation.
To follow up on these results, Athena is planning another 10,000m of drilling to test the extensions of the Scooby Zone, in addition to ground truthing historic trenches.
Athena Gold is a mineral explorer focused on acquiring mineral property assets prospective for precious and base metals.
Write to Jackson Chen at Mining.com.au
Image: Athena Gold
