Ardiden Limited has amassed a huge land bank after cherry picking 165 square kilometres of prospective leases adjacent to its Pickle Lake gold project in Ontario, Canada.
The move takes Ardiden’s total land-holding in the gold-rich greenstone belt to 664 square kilometres and the company says its lease position is now the largest in the region and comparable with the world class Red Lake gold district located approximately 200 kilometres west of Pickle Lake.
The company’s Kasagiminnis deposit within its Pickle Lake project area already holds 110,000oz of contained gold within its resource of 790,000 tonnes at an impressive 4.3g/t gold. A recommencement of drilling to extend the resource at Kasagiminnis is Ardiden’s immediate priority.
The amassed land bank covers a massive strike length of geological trends that the company believes may host structures and rock types that Ardiden considers to be prospective for economic mineralisation within the region.
Ardiden’s portfolio currently boasts some seven gold prospects and one deposit which are dotted along a greenstone belt and scattered amongst four historical underground mines that have yielded more than 3Moz gold over time.
Ardiden’s technical team has already identified over a dozen possible drill target areas but will use the current remote working period during the COVID-19 pandemic to re-visit all available data sets to fine tune the targets ahead of its next round of ground-based and airborne geophysical exploration surveys.
Ardiden’s land, called the Fry-McVean property, is 100% owned and not subject to royalties or third-party payments which should see the economics of any discovery turbo-charged for the Perth-based company.
Fry-McVean directly joins Ardiden’s high-grade Dorothy-Dobie gold property, where it recently announced a number of historical high-grade results over a 25km strike length with some staggeringly good drill results up to 472.8 g/t gold and broad mineralised intercepts including 20.65m at 3.5 g/t gold.
Ardiden Limited CEO, Robin (Rob) Longley said: “The Pickle Lake Gold project area has been vastly unexplored and is ripe for Ardiden to apply modern exploration methods systematically across its large landholding. This affords Ardiden a significant opportunity to progressively build a considerable high-grade gold resource over time.”
“The ground holding Ardiden now owns at Pickle Lake is comparable in size to that of the 30 Moz Red Lake producing district next door. When we compare the small footprint of our current 110,000 oz JORC Resource at the Kasagiminnis Deposit, with our total ground holding and prospective strike length, which we have aggregated together, the discovery opportunities are truly exciting.”
Whilst it is 160km west of Ardiden’s ground, the 27Moz Red Lake Gold Camp operated by Evolution Mining is within the same geological province, the Uchi Sub-province.
Gold is the belle of the ball right now and Ardiden would appear to have a beast of a land-holding in the right place at the right time in the right commodity – now for some success with the drill bit.
Is your ASX listed company doing something interesting ? Contact : matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
