Greatland Gold PLC initiates exploration at the Juri joint venture, in

() has commenced drilling under the Juri joint venture with partner Newcrest Mining Ltd ().

The Juri joint venture is in the highly prospective Paterson province of Western Australia.

The Paterson Range East licence lies approximately 25 kilometres north of the company’s Havieron gold-copper project and covers 224 square kilometres of Proterozoic basement rocks prospective for Havieron-style gold-copper mineralisation.

Newcrest has the right to earn up to a 75% interest in the licences covering Juri by spending up to A$20mln. Greatland is currently the manager of the Juri joint venture.

All heritage clearances and government approvals were received before the start of the drilling campaign.

“It is very pleasing to announce the commencement of our maiden drilling campaign under our second joint venture with Newcrest in the Paterson region,” said Shaun Day, chief executive of Greatland.  

“Six months ago, we entered the Juri joint venture to accelerate Greatland’s exploration activity and maximise the value of the Paterson Range East and Black Hills licences. The start of this programme is an important step towards achieving that goal. 

“Our geology team has identified a set of high-priority targets to be drilled across this programme that display many similar geophysical characteristics to the Havieron gold-copper deposit. With the drill rig now on site, and all necessary camp infrastructure safely established, drilling has commenced at a large ‘bulls-eye’ magnetic anomaly known as Goliath.” 

The Juri campaign forms part of Greatland’s multifaceted exploration strategy for 2021 in the highly prospective Paterson region. This work complements the substantial progress at Havieron, where an ongoing 65,000 metre drilling programme is underway, together with exploration activities at other wholly owned licences across the region.