After a brief intermission, Spences Bridge Gold Belt gold explorer- Westhaven Ventures (TSX-V:WHN, OTC:WTHVF) has the drill rig back out at its Shovelnose Project in southern BC, Canada. Drilling is set to begin over the coming days. Geophysics work (DC resistivity) is still ongoing at Shovelnose, and Westhaven VP of exploration, Peter Fischl, is heading back to the project shortly to prepare for the inaugural drill program of 2019.
In this next phase of drilling, Westhaven will be targeting 7 holes for approximately 2,800 meters (~400 meters per hole). As a result of the discovery of the second subparallel gold mineralized vein zone in late 2018, Westhaven is planning on drilling deeper holes, hoping to potentially discover a third vein zone.
In its most recent drilling at the end of 2018, Westhaven hit the second vein zone at the South Zone in multiple holes. This included high grade gold intercepts in holes SN18-18 (13.67m of 4.29 g/t gold and 21.87 g/t silver), and SN18-21 (12.90m of 12.11 g/t gold and 94.31 g/t silver). Westhaven now knows it’s dealing with two subparallel gold mineralized veins, and there is good potential for there to be additional veins:
The drill program will begin over the coming days, and will be focused in the South Zone. It will be targeting both the first and, newly discovered, second vein zone/structures intersected in holes SN18-14, SN18-15, SN18-18, and SN18-22. This program will largely consist of step outs both along azimuth and along strike:
Westhaven will also be going to the southeast of hole SN18-19 to test a confluent mag low and resistivity high target that was identified through geophysics. This discovery was made AFTER Westhaven had begun drilling SN18-19 (they wouldn’t have drilled hole 19 the way they did if they had the geophysics data they have now):
Westhaven is more confident than ever that the best drill intersections are yet to be drilled.
Why are they so confident?
They’ve never had more information than they have now to assist with drill targeting. The more drill holes they have into an area, the better actual representation that they have as to what’s going on at depth. By February 2018, Westhaven only had 2 holes into the South Zone, which equated to roughly 935 meters of drilling. Westhaven has now completed 22 more holes at the South Zone for 8,540 meters of additional drilling since then.
More importantly, the 5 holes that were completed just before the new year have given Westhaven a lot more information as to what the geology is doing and what the vein/orientations are doing in, and around, those holes. Westhaven has also learned a great deal about the preferred elevation where the gold “falls” out, this is at/around 1200 meters elevation.
Westhaven also has a lot more geophysics data with which to work. A ground magnetics program was initiated near the end of 2018 – this assists Westhaven in targeting the preferred host rocks (felsic rocks). Then, in January, Westhaven initiated ongoing DC resistivity. The DC-resistivity survey is of particular interest because it was successful in defining multiple resistivity highs, which could be indicative of resistive gold-bearing silicified zones:
In the following slide from Westhaven’s presentation at VRIC, one can see section D at the bottom right of the South Zone map. This line (section D) is 100 meters to the southeast of hole SN18-19 and 200 meters southeast of SN18-15:
This is a great looking geophysical target – Lines b and c were run over areas that Westhaven already has drilled holes into. What is evidenced from those resistivity lines, specifically the high resistivity anomalies, is that they are highly correlated with the high grade gold quartz veins/veinlets.
If the resistivity highs outlined in sections A, B, and C are coincident with gold-bearing quartz veining, then is the resistivity high in section D (200 meters southeast of hole SN18-15) also going to be?
Westhaven is about to find out….
The company also recently announced that they have arranged a C$2.5 million charity flow-through financing at C$1.13 per share. This is important news because Westhaven is now cashed up for the foreseeable future and will not need to immediately raise money once the current drilling program completes in March. This gives Westhaven more flexibility and puts the company in a position of strength when it comes to future negotiations.
The actual buyers of this charity flow-through PP were long term Westhaven shareholders, including some investors who have been shareholders since Westhaven’s seed round. These investors are the definition of strong hands. This means the company was able to raise more than enough money to get it well into the summer months, and the capital raise was achieved with minimal dilution (no warrants were issued). Moreover, the shares were placed in the strong hands of investors who are committed to seeing Westhaven take Shovelnose and its other projects all the way to the finish line.
Since the January correction, Westhaven shares have given back about ½ of the October-December 2018 rise:
WHN.V (Daily)
This gives investors the opportunity to get into WHN shares on a pullback just as the company begins an important drilling program at Shovelnose, which could further delineate the first two vein zones. Additionally, potentially extending the known areas of mineralization to the east and southeast.
Disclosure: Author is long Westhaven shares at the time of publishing.
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