Drilling at Greatland-Newcrest’s Havieron backs resource expansion

Results so far show high-grade intercepts below the December 2020 initial inferred mineral resource shell in the South East Crescent Zone and adjacent Breccia Zones, and around the Northern Breccia.

Newcrest managing director Sandeep Biswas described the results as exciting.   

“These results highlight the potential for significant high-grade depth extension of the South East Crescent zone,” he said in a statement.

“With each new set of excellent intercepts, we demonstrably advance the potential size and value of the gold-copper orebody at Havieron,” Greatland Gold chief executive, Shaun Day, said in a separate release.

Newcrest now has a 60% in the project located 45km east of its Telfer gold-copper mine, and 500km east of rail and port infrastructure at Port Hedland.

The miner said it had identified further targets at Havieron, and is drill testing targets at the nearby Juri joint venture with Greatland.   

A prefeasibility study at Havieron is due later this year and Newcrest is targeting first production through its Telfer plant, 45km away, within three years.   

Newcrest, which is also the world’s No. 3 gold producer by market value, has been aggressively searching for juniors with appealing assets to jointly develop.

Early last year, it acquired a 70% stake in Canada’s Red Chris copper and gold mine from Imperial Metals (TSX: III).

The Paterson region hosts several large gold and/or copper deposits such as Nifty, Winu and Newcrest’s own Telfer.

The world’s second-largest mining company, Rio Tinto (ASX, LON:RIO), is very invested in the area. In 2018, it apply for nearly 30 exploration licenses in Patterson, sparking a stampede into adjacent lots by other explorers, who see the miner’s aggressive activity as an indicator of a highly promising find.