- Shares in Ardiden (ADV) have jumped this morning after the company secured a permit for drilling work at its Pickle Lake Gold Project in Canada
- A 4000-metre diamond drilling program will initially focus on the Esker gold prospect, before moving to other targets
- Historical drilling in the area by other operators include 5.35 metres at 3.1g/t gold, including 0.3 metres at 24g/t gold
- A First Nation-owned drilling company has been contracted to carry out the overall 12,000-metre program at Pickle Lake, which is expected to begin in early January 2022
- Shares in Ardiden are up 8.33 per cent to 1.3 cents each
Shares in Ardiden (ADV) have jumped this morning after the company secured a permit for drilling work at its Pickle Lake Gold Project in Canada.
Located east of Red Lake in northwest Ontario, the wholly-owned project covers 870 square kilometres and contains at least 22 identified gold prospects that the exploration company said it is systematically exploring.
With permit approval in hand, one of those prospects — the Esker gold prospect — will be the subject of a maiden 4000-metre diamond drilling program, which has been designed to test the gold-bearing structures of the deposit.
Gold mineralisation in the area is thought to be associated with the northwest-southeast trending Bear Head Fault Zone. The formation covers a strike length of more than 50 kilometres and hosts Barrick Gold’s Golden Patricia mine, which has so far produced almost 620,000 ounces of gold.
According to historical drilling work by earlier operators, the Esker prospect has returned some promising results. They include 5.35 metres at 3.1 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, including 0.3 metres at 24g/t gold, and 12.03 metres at 3.2g/t gold, including 0.9 metres at 13.5g/t gold.
Managing Director and CEO Rob Longley said the road to securing approvals had been long and arduous, but added that the company’s persistence had paid off and work could now begin to assess the potential of Ardiden’s “massive” landholding.
“While waiting for the permits, we actively used the time to continue geophysical interpretations, flying high resolution Lidar over the project,” Mr Longley said.
“This drill program at Esker is Ardiden’s first step onto the Western Hub and will be the first drilling along these highly prospective and under-explored structures in nearly 30 years.”
Once drilling wraps up at Esker, the focus will then move to other targets along the Western Hub, with the Dorothy-Dobie prospect — located northwest and along strike of the Golden Patricia Mine — next in line.
Ardiden has contracted an unnamed, First Nation-owned drilling company to carry out the overall 12,000-metre program at Pickle Lake, which is expected to begin in early January 2022.
Shares in Ardiden were up 8.33 per cent to 1.3 cents each as of 11:35 am AEDT.