Gatling Targets Aggressive Zone Growth and Near Surface Mineralization at Larder Gold Project with 25,000 m Drill Program

07.01.2021  |  ACCESS Newswire

VANCOUVER, January 7, 2021 - GATLING EXPLORATION INC. (TSXV:GTR)(OTCQB:GATGF) (the "Company" or "Gatling) is pleased to announce an additional 25,000 m drill program on its Larder Gold project in Ontario, Canada. The primary focus will be near surface and along strike targets at all three high-grade zones as the Company continues to prove up mineralization along the continuous 4.5 km strike. In addition, a number of holes will follow up the 2020 drilling success at the Kir Vit prospect, 6 km north of the existing deposits.

The Company also notes that, following the close of its successful $4.64M financing and share consolidation (see Gatling news release dated December 20, 2020), there are now approximately 39M common shares issued and outstanding. Approximately 65% of the recent financing was taken up by institutional investors. Of further note, on December 15, 2020, Gatling held its Annual General Meeting with shareholders during which all resolutions were accepted, and directors were voted in with a minimum of 97% of votes in favour.

Larder Gold Project Exploration Plan and Strategy for 2021

• Fernland Deposit Expansion - 13,500 m targeting near surface gold mineralization along strike and at depth. Initial drilling planned to prove up near surface gold zones by testing the lateral extent of gold mineralization heading westward towards the historic Omega mine in addition to new mineralized lenses at depth (Figure 1 and 2).
• Cheminis Deposit Expansion - 3,000 m targeting near surface gold mineralization along the north and south zones on the main Cadillac Larder Lake Break connecting both Fernland and Bear deposits (Figure 1). The Cheminis deposit is well defined within the parameters of the existing infrastructure and these new targets will aim to further prove up a near surface mineralized body.
• Bear Deposit Expansion - 4,500 m targeting along strike and up plunge. Targets are defined to tie together continuous mineralization between the heart of the Bear deposit (commencing at approximately 500 m below surface) and the high-grade lenses closer to surface (Figure 1). If drilling validates the continuity of the mineralization at the Bear deposit, this will establish nearly 1 km of vertical gold mineralization, becoming the largest mineralized body at the Larder Gold project.
• Kir Vit Prospect Hotspots - 4,000 m targeting new mineralized horizons and following up on 2019 first pass drilling which intersected gold mineralization in 13 out of 16 holes. In addition, the 2020 stripping campaign discovered a third gold trend at Kir Vit which will be tested in this drill campaign. Channel samples from the newly identified northeast-southwest trending shear zones resulted in grades up to 16.2 g/t Au over 1.0 m at surface (Figure 3 and 4).
• Project De-Risking and Resource Advancement. Gatling is currently preparing to complete an updated resource estimate on the Larder Gold project and conduct preliminary pit/underground stope optimization models for all three high-grade gold deposits. Concurrently, metallurgical sampling will be completed.
• Regional Exploration. Gatling will conduct a thorough field program to investigate newly identified targets from our 2020 campaign. Initial targets will include LiDAR trends along the main break and structural traps, east-west conglomerate trends, intrusion-related trends and upcoming AI targets from Windfall Geotek.

Jason Billan, President and CEO for Gatling, commented, "With this new 25,000 m drill program already underway, Gatling aims to accelerate the advancement of the Larder gold project in Ontario. We will be targeting comprehensive growth at all three high-grade zones, progressing our new Kir Vit prospect, and drill testing select regional targets. 2020 drilling hit a series of important milestones, and we are looking forward to showcasing the quality asset that Larder is over the next twelve months."

2020 Larder Gold Project Highlights

• Confirmation of 4.5 km of continuous gold mineralization between Fernland, Cheminis and Bear deposits
• Intersecting high-grade and near surface gold mineralization at Fernland including 11.9 g/t Au over 4.0 m and 2.4 g/t Au over 29.0 m
• Discovery of a new parallel zone and significant near surface gold mineralization at the Cheminis deposit including 6.1 g/t Au over 6.0 m and 2.5 g/t Au over 39.7 m
• Extension of the Bear deposit along strike and up plunge with high-grade gold intersections including 85.1 g/t Au over 3.0 m
• Discovery of three new gold trends at Kir Vit - Intrusion-related, conglomerate-hosted, and shear-hosted including 16.2 g/t Au over 1.0 m, 8.2 g/t Au over 1.0 m and 2.8 g/t Au over 7.0 m in channel samples

Figure 1. Larder Gold project long section showing the new gold mineralized zones identified from recent drilling and target areas for the H1 2021 drill program.

Figure 2. Geological map showing Gatling drill holes along a 4.5 km mineralized trend at the Larder Gold project.

Figure 3. Plan view of the Kir Vit prospect showing Magnetic data overlayed with structures extracted from 1 m resolution LiDAR and new northeast-southwest trending shear zones.

Figure 4. Plan view of stripped outcrop at the Kir Vit prospect with newly discovered high-grade gold hosted in northeast-southwest trending shear zones.

About Gatling Exploration

Gatling Exploration is a Canadian gold exploration company focused on advancing the Larder Gold Project, located in the prolific Abitibi greenstone belt in Northern Ontario. The Larder property hosts three high-grade gold deposits along the Cadillac-Larder Lake Break, 35 km east of Kirkland Lake. The project is 100% controlled by Gatling and is comprised of patented and unpatented claims, leases and mining licenses of occupation within the McVittie and McGarry Townships. The 3,370 ha project area is positioned 7 km west of the Kerr Addison Mine, which produced 11 million ounces of gold. All parts of the Larder property are accessible by truck or all-terrain vehicles on non-serviced roads and trails.

Qualified Person

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Nathan Tribble, P. Geo., VP Exploration of Gatling Exploration, and a Qualified Person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS,

Jason Billan, President and CEO
Gatling Exploration Inc.

For further information on Gatling, contact Investor Relations

Telephone: 1-888-316-1050
Email: ir@gatlingexploration.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward Looking Statements: Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements, which are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainness and other factors that may cause the actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the expectations in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, actual results may vary, and we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.

SOURCE: Gatling Exploration Inc.