Canada's South Uchi Gold Project Launches Phase 4 5,000-Meter Drilling Program

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 7, Canadian mining company Kenorland Minerals and Auranova Resources announced the launch of Phase 4 diamond drilling at the South Uchi Gold Project in the Red Lake mining district of Ontario, with plans to complete approximately 5,000 meters of drilling. The program is focused on the North Papa mineralized zone within the Papaonga target area, primarily aimed at verifying the along-strike and down-dip extensions of previously identified gold mineralization. Drilling is expected to be completed by mid-November.

Phase 4 drilling will use the previously completed hole 26PADD046 as the primary reference, with step-out holes positioned along strike and down-dip from the existing mineralized intercepts. Previous drilling campaigns established multiple drill sections spaced approximately 500 meters apart along the North Papa mineralized zone. This phase plans to further define the geometry of the approximately 200-meter-wide mineralized corridor through tighter-spaced step-out drilling, and to test chargeability and resistivity anomalies identified by the 2026 summer induced polarization (IP) geophysical survey.

Hole 26PADD046 previously returned a 65.45-meter gold mineralized interval averaging 0.34 g/t gold, including 21 meters averaging 0.58 g/t gold. The hole also returned mineralized intercepts of 14 meters at 0.28 g/t gold and 35.65 meters at 0.31 g/t gold. Mineralization is primarily hosted in felsic and mafic volcanic rocks, accompanied by silicification, sericitization, localized albitization, and disseminated and veinlet-style sulfide mineralization.

This drilling phase will also test gold mineralization near the contact zone between tholeiitic basalt series and calc-alkaline volcanic rocks. Hole 26PADD046 previously returned 7.70 meters at 1.13 g/t gold at this contact, including 1 meter grading 7.07 g/t. Hole 26PADD043, located approximately 500 meters to the east, returned a 3.75-meter mineralized interval at 3.65 g/t gold, including 1.45 meters averaging 9.09 g/t. The mineralization is associated with quartz-carbonate veins and pyrite and pyrrhotite.

Kenorland continues to serve as the exploration operator of the South Uchi Project. Under the previously signed earn-in agreement between the two parties, Auranova has acquired a 51% interest in the project and completed a C$500,000 cash payment. Auranova may further acquire an additional 19% interest by incurring an additional C$10 million in qualifying exploration expenditures, increasing its ownership to 70%. Kenorland retains a 2% net smelter return royalty on the project and is entitled to an agreed 30% carried interest arrangement until the completion of a preliminary economic assessment.

Following the completion of Phase 4 drilling, the project team will update the geological model of the North Papa mineralized zone incorporating the new core data, gold assay results, and IP geophysical data.