Matador Mining detects eight new priority targets at Newfoundland gold body

Matador Mining (ASX: MZZ) has identified eight new priority targets within 3km of previous promising gold results at the company’s Window Glass Hill deposit in Newfoundland, Canada.

Window Glass Hill is just one part of Matador’s Cape Ray project that consists of 120km of continuous strike in what the company describes as a “proven, yet under-explored multi-million ounce” resource.

The new priority targets were found as a result of last year’s ground magnetics program.

This follows assays reported last month at Window Glass Hill itself, including 8m at 5.5 grams per tonne of gold from 43m down hole and another hole that intersected three separate gold zones.

New targets under shallow cover

Each of the new targets is under shallow cover of less than 5m and they share similar geophysical characteristics with last year’s Angus discovery.

Angus, where the first hole intersected 20m at 3.28g/t gold at 82m from surface, was the first new greenfield discovery at Cape Ray in more than 20 years.

Earlier this year, the company announced its Angus prospect greenfield exploration target had extended the mineralised footprint by 300m to 450m.

Matador executive chairman Ian Murray said the Cape Ray project had undergone minimal exploration outside the known deposits before being acquired by the company.

“The Angus discovery in 2020 demonstrated our ability to find new gold mineralised systems under cover close to our existing mineral resources.”

He added that increased understanding of the project’s geophysical, geochemical and structural footprints should result in additional exploration success.

The company is initially focused on areas that are within trucking distance of the proposed central processing plant.

The eight new targets will be tested in the coming weeks with power-auger drilling and more geochemistry, both aimed at increasing the probability of success with the planned 2021 diamond drilling program.

Matador is accelerating the planned 2021 regional geophysics program over the central 45km of the tenement, all within trucking distance of the planned plant.

Matador largest ground holder

Cape Ray was discovered in 1977 and has been explored by several mining companies, with more than 85,000m of drilling having been done (much of that before 1989).

The project is in the south-western area of the Canadian province of Newfoundland, 25km northeast of the coastal town of Port aux Basques.

Matador is the largest holder of ground along the Cape Ray shear, with its tenement boundary located approximately 50km along strike from Toronto-listed Marathon Gold’s 4.2-million-ounce Valentine Lake gold project.

Newfoundland is keen to attract explorers and wants new mines, just as does its fellow Canadian province of Nova Scotia; both are underexplored and have been largely overlooked.