- Microcap gold explorer Ardiden (ADV) has revealed the details of an upcoming drilling program at its Pickle Lake Gold Project in Ontario
- The phase-one campaign will kick off with 3000 metres of diamond drilling at the Kasagiminnis prospect
- In September 2019, Ardiden reported an inferred JORC resource estimate of 790,000 tonnes at 4.3 grams per tonne for 110,000 ounces of gold at Kasagiminnis
- Drilling will target the western extension of the prospect’s JORC Resource, which Ardiden outlined last year
- The prospect lies in the same area as some other major gold mines, including Goldcorp’s Dona Lake and Barrick’s Gold Patricia mines
- Ardiden’s drilling program will begin in July 2020
- Shares in the company are trading grey today, currently worth 0.4 cents each
Microcap gold explorer Ardiden (ADV) has revealed the details of its upcoming drilling program at its Pickle Lake Gold Project in Ontario, Canada.
Ardiden reported an inferred JORC resource estimate of 790,000 tonnes at 4.3 grams per tonne for 110,000 ounces of gold at the Kasagiminnis prospect in September 2019.
Today, the company revealed the first phase of its plan will begin will 3000 metres of diamond drilling targeting the western extension of this JORC Resource.
The resource estimate was based on 2018 drilling at the prospect, which returned some strong intercepts such as a 21-metre intersection grading 3.97 grams per tonne of gold in one hole.
The upcoming drilling program will kick off in July 2020 and continue on from this 2018 program. Drilling will also target some untested areas south of the main Kasagiminnis Resource.
Ardiden will be able to fully fund the drilling program from its existing cash reserves. At the end of March 2020, the company had $1.94 million to play with.
According to Ardiden, the project, which is wholly-owned by the company, has had no historical mining in the area and subsequently no exploitation of the gold resources it holds.
Ardiden Canadian Exploration Manager, Dan Grabiec, said the company has a much-improved understanding of the geology, structures, and controls on gold mineralisation at Kasagiminnis to support the upcoming drilling campaign.
“The 110,000-ounce inferred resource has been defined over a very limited strike length and depth extent, so the potential upside from further drilling is significant when you consider there are four other gold mines in the immediate region that developed underground mines down to 1.2 kilometres below surface,” Dan explained.
These four mines include Goldcorp’s Dona Lake, Barrick’s Gold Patricia, First Mining’s Pickle Crow, and the historical Central Patricia projects.
“We can see the potential over at least a five-kilometre strike length of our ground at Kasagiminnis based on historical results and geophysics,” Dan said.
Ardiden told shareholders today it has defined an exploration target of between four million and 5.8 million tonnes at a grade, ranging between 3.9 grams and 6.6 grams per tonne of gold at Kasagiminnis.
The company said it has more drilling programs planned for 2020 and 2021, but details regarding these programs have not yet been revealed.
It seems punters are happy to wait for the results of the upcoming drill program before placing any bets on Ardiden, however.
Shares in the company are trading grey today, worth 0.4 cents each.