Great Pacific Gold Corp. (GPAC) is pleased to announce the commencement of drilling at its Arau Project in Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Since acquiring Arau, the GPAC team has rehabilitated road access to the project and constructed nine drill pads. With access to exploration target areas complete, a reverse circulation (RC) drill rig was mobilised to the site recently. Following a welcoming ceremony in the community to mark the start of exploration, drilling has now commenced.
This marks the first drilling activity by the Company on its PNG projects. While drilling is underway at the Arau Project, the Company is concurrently preparing the Kesar Creek Project (adjacent to and northwest of the highly prolific K92 Mining Inc. tenements) for its own drilling programme. An ongoing phase 2 soil programme at the Kesar Creek Project is set to complete this week and will further delineate targets for the upcoming drill programme. In addition to the drilling at the Arau Project and the Phase 2 soil programme at the Kesar Creek Project, the Company has initiated road rehabilitation work at the previously producing Wild Dog Project, located in East New Britain Province, in preparation for exploration activities there.
Arau Project
The Arau Project comprises two exploration licences, situated in the Kainantu region, and includes the Mt. Victor Prospect, where previous drilling identified a multiple phase intrusion complex hosting copper and gold mineralisation.
Drilling aims to confirm copper-gold porphyry mineralisation beneath the skarn mineralisation at the project. Previous drilling at Mt. Victor was focused on establishing the gold resource associated with the outcropping skarn mineralisation. A drilling programme of approximately 2000 metres is anticipated.
As part of the Arau Project, in the southern exploration licence, EL2715, an initial extensive soil sampling programme of 377 samples has recently been completed. This programme followed up on previously generated copper-gold geochemical data from stream sediment anomalous drainages and ridge and spur soil sampling programmes. The area is underlain by the highly prospective Elandora porphyry unit, known to host copper porphyry and epithermal gold mineralisation. Assays for this programme are expected in the coming weeks.
In addition to the two exploration licences currently comprising the Arau Project, the Company has also recently applied for further prospective ground contiguous with the existing land package and to the north, via Exploration Licence Application 2834.
