VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Westhaven Ventures Inc. (TSX-V:WHN) is pleased to report partial drill results from its spring drill campaign on its 18,768 hectare Shovelnose gold property, located within the prospective Spences Bridge Gold Belt (SBGB), approximately 30 kilometres south of Merritt, British Columbia. The drill program is ongoing and consists of 7 holes totaling more than 2,800 metres of diamond drilling.
Drilling Highlights from drill hole SN18-03:
- (178m – 206.7m) 28.7 meters (m) of 2.6 g/t gold (Au), including
- (189m – 206.7m) 17.7m grading 3.9 g/t Au which in turn includes
- (203m – 206.7m) 3.7m grading 6.3 g/t Au and
- (190m – 192.9m) 2.9m grading 9.7g/t Au.
*Drilling to date is limited so true widths cannot be definitively determined. However, based on the geology of the vein zone with a moderate dip to the west, we can estimate true widths at 80%.
Gren Thomas, President & CEO of Westhaven stated, “These initial results from the spring drilling campaign are very encouraging and demonstrate higher grade exists at depth, in addition to what’s been found on surface. The South Zone was only discovered at the end of 2017 and has had limited work to date. It is now the priority focus at Shovelnose and we are confident that similar zones of gold mineralization will be found elsewhere within this newly discovered area.”
This drill program is following-up on last year’s discovery of the South Zone where two holes in an unexplored area intersected an auriferous silicified zone. SN17-06 intersected 85m of 0.52 g/t Au. SN18-03 was drilled as an overcut of SN17-06 and it intersected a zone of silicification and quartz veining, including metre scale quartz veins that differentiate this zone from all other zones drilled on Shovelnose, with vein intersections of up to 8 metres. Exploratory holes SN18-01 and SN18-02 were drilled 200 metres and 400 metres south of SN17-06 but failed to intersect the zone.
Thomas goes on to add, “SN18-03 is the most encouraging hole drilled to date on Shovelnose, where Westhaven has carried out numerous small drill programs over a period of 8 years and outlined a number of gold rich zones. The Company is looking forward to receiving the assays from the remaining four holes as all four holes intersected silicification and quartz veining at various depths over a strike length of 200m. A summer drill program will commence in June.”
The Spences Bridge Gold Belt (SBGB)
Westhaven owns a 100% interest in over 32,000 hectares within the prospective SBGB, which is situated within a geological setting similar to those which host other significant epithermal gold-silver systems. It is close to existing transportation and infrastructure allowing for cost-effective exploration. The SBGB is a 110-kilometre northwest-trending belt of intermediate to felsic volcanic rocks dominated by the Cretaceous Spences Bridge group. Westhaven has been working on the SBGB since 2011 and believes these relatively underexplored volcanic rocks are highly prospective for epithermal style gold mineralization.
On behalf of the Board of Directors
WESTHAVEN VENTURES INC.
“Gareth Thomas”
Gareth Thomas, Director
About Westhaven Ventures Inc.
Westhaven Ventures Inc. is a Canadian based exploration company focused on the acquisition and exploration of prospective resource properties. Westhaven is focused on advancing its Shovelnose, Prospect Valley and Skoonka gold projects in British Columbia. Westhaven trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol WHN. For further information, please call 604-681-5558 or visit Westhaven’s website at www.westhavenventures.com.
Qualified Person Statement
Peter Fischl, P.Geo., who is a Qualified Person within the context of National Instrument 43-101, has read and takes responsibility for this release.
QA/QC
Core samples were prepared using the PREP-31 package in ALS’s Kamloops facility each core sample is crushed to better than 70 % passing a 2 mm (Tyler 9 mesh, US Std. No.10) screen. A split of 250 g is taken and pulverized to better than 85 % passing a 75 micron (Tyler 200 mesh, US Std. No. 200) screen. 0.5g of this pulverized split is digested in aqua regia and analyzed via ICP-MS and ICP-AES (method code ME-MS41L), which reports a 53-element suite of elements. All results greater than 100 ppb gold were reanalyzed by ALS using their Fire Assay with an AAS finish, method code Au-AA23 (30g sample size). All analysis is conducted in ALS’s North Vancouver facility. A QA/QC program included the lab and field standards inserted every 25 samples.
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