LONDON, UK: Greatland Gold plc (AIM:GGP), a mining development and exploration company with a focus on precious and base metals, has been awarded a grant from the Western Australian Government to co-fund exploration drilling and mobilisation costs at its 100% owned Ernest Giles project.

The grant awarded is the result of a successful application under the Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS). Greatland is eligible to receive a grant up to A$220,000 (£120,000) to co-fund drilling and mobilisation costs, for completion before 30 November 2023.

Shaun Day, Managing Director of Greatland Gold plc, commented: “This drilling grant award for the Ernest Giles project will co-fund commencement of a new exploration programme. Ernest Giles is located in the Yilgarn craton, one of the most highly mineralised areas in the world and home to numerous gold deposits. With work advancing to finalise access, this grant then enables testing of priority targets at Ernest Giles, an underexplored and prospective part of the Greatland portfolio.”

The Ernest Giles project covers a sequence of magnetic greenstone rocks (Figure 1) typical of the Archean goldfields of Western Australia which host large gold camps such as Kalgoorlie, Leonora, Laverton, Mt Magnet and Jundee.

The project is located approximately 250km north-east of the town of Laverton. The gold prospective greenstone sequence at Ernest Giles does not outcrop. Thickness of the cover sequence ranges from around 120m to more than 300m across the broader project area. Consequently, with no outcrop, the project has not been subject to extensive historic exploration activity.

Drill testing on the Calanchini licence, focusing on the Meadows prospect, as outlined in the EIS will be the first priority for Greatland. Previous drilling has identified favorable Archean hosts rocks for Yilgarn style shear hosted gold. Ongoing work will include airborne geophysics to better understand the geology of the entire Ernest Giles belt prior to systematic drill testing of the resultant priority targets.