Matador Mining to begin 2021 field season next month at Canadian Cape Ray gold project

Matador Mining (ASX: MZZ) is poised to begin drilling the Cape Ray gold project after hitting numerous milestones during its 2020 field season including uncovering “significant” intercepts in 76% of the holes drilled.

The company plans to mobilise to Cape Ray in Newfoundland, Canada next month in readiness for this year’s field season.

This year’s program will follow up on the numerous achievements from 2020 which included 75-diamond drill holes for 10,768m completed between July and November.

Of these holes, “significant” intercepts grading above 0.5g/t gold were returned. Additionally, 80% of all gold from these intercepts was found within 80m of surface.

The drilling program focused on a combination of greenfields (41%), extensional (40%) and mineral resource infill (19%) work.

An additional 1,528m of geotechnical and hydrological drilling was also undertaken to support mining and environmental studies.

2020 exploration highlights

Numerous achievements were made during the 2020 season including the highest-grade intercept ever returned at the project of 1m at 79.9 grams per tonne gold.

Drilling also unearthed the “best intercept” at Matador of 18m at 11g/t gold, which was hit at the Isle aux Morts prospect.

Exploration also led to the first discovery at the project in more than 20 years. This was the Angus discovery hole which assayed 20m at 2.4g/t gold, including 9m at 5g/t gold.

Angus was identified about 1km southwest of the existing Window Glass Hill resource which stands at 232,000 ounces of contained gold grading 1.6g/t gold. Drilling at Window Glass Hill also identified a high-grade zone beneath the resource that remains open at depth. This returned 2m at 6.9g/t from 154.1m.

Matador executive chairman Ian Murray said the 2020 program had set the “benchmark” for the company.

“One of the more impressive 2020 drilling statistics is that 80% of all gold is contained in significant intercepts drilled within 80 vertical metres of surface.”

“This demonstrates the potential of the Cape Ray gold project and supports the ongoing company strategy of targeting shallow, open-pittable gold deposits in an immature exploration environment, as we look to expand upon the already robust platform that was set in the May 2020 scoping study.”

2021 focus

Mr Murray said the company’s upcoming season at Cape Ray would be “one of the most ambitious exploration programs” ever carried out at the project.

“With preparations well advanced, we are looking to hit the ground running early next quarter,” he added.

In the upcoming program, Matador will be looking to make similar greenfields discoveries to Angus.

The Angus target had been identified using geophysical, geochemistry and surface anomalies which were similar to Window Glass Hill.

As a result, the company now has 33 new targets across 120km of strike within the project.

In this upcoming program, 12 of the targets have been prioritised.

Additionally, Angus will be a “high priority” target for follow up work this year.