WGLD Western Gold Exploration Ltd

TSX Venture: WGLD

NORTH BERWICK, Scotland, Nov. 29, 2022 /CNW/ - WESTERN GOLD EXPLORATION LTD. (TSXV: WGLD) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has filed a National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral projects ("NI 43-101") compliant, independent Technical Report (the "Report ") on its Lagalochan copper gold molybdenum porphyry prospect, located in Argyll, Scotland.

The Report titled "NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Lagalochan Property, Argyll, Scotland" is dated 29 November 2022, with an effective date of 29 November 2022, and details the historical and recent exploration activities on the Lagalochan property and recommendations for future work. The Report is prepared for the Company by Dr. Toby Strauss (CGeol) (EurGeol) of Merlyn Consulting and David Pym (CGeol) of LTI Advisory with contributions from Dr. Calum Lyell; it is available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and on the Company's website (www. westerngoldexploration.com).

The Company has reinterpreted past exploration activities in the Lagalochan area, Scotland, which forms part of the highly prospective Appalachian/Caledonian belt that transverses through North America, Greenland and parts of Scandinavia. As part of the recommendations from the Report, the Company has already relogged over 2,000m of drill core from the 2013 and 2018 drilling campaigns and carried out further Ionic Leach soil sampling across unexplored areas in Lagalochan. Relogging will help build a consistent alteration and mineralization model to assist in vectoring towards more productive parts of the porphyry system. The assays for the Ionic Leach soil survey are expected to be returned by January 2023.  

Highlights from the Report are:

• Copper (Cu) gold (Au) molybdenum (Mo) mineralisation at Lagalochan is a rare example of an exceptionally well preserved and undeformed, breccia dominated, Silurian aged, porphyry system. The porphyry is of the high-K, calc-alkaline type similar to Red Chis in British Columbia and Bingham Canyon in Utah which are noted for their gold content as well as copper and molybdenum.
• Mineralization occurs from surface and is associated with quartz stockworks and extensive potassic alteration overprinted by intense phyllic alteration.
• Shallow levels of erosion preserve gold, silver, zinc and lead bearing intermediate sulphidation epithermal veining and proximal copper-gold skarn assemblages. These so far form a minor proportion of the known mineralization, but are important exploration targets.
• Lack of outcrop combined with less than 10,000m of historical drilling, leaves considerable exploration potential, with primary Cu, Au, Mo mineralisation open in all directions at surface and to depth.
• New exploration will focus on the targets highlighted in the Report to extend the near-surface mineralisation at Lagalochan through pitting and subsurface sampling.

Harry Dobson, Chairman of the Board, commented: "The independent Technical Report highlights the considerable exploration potential of the Lagalochan porphyry occurrence. Porphyry deposits are the biggest producers of copper worldwide and are a sought-after asset type, particularly in stable first world jurisdictions. We look forward to continue to develop the project further".

Gossan Burn, Knapdale Project Drilling Results 2022

The Company launched a drilling campaign at Knapdale in Q2 2022 (see the Company's April 21, 2022 press release) comprising 5 diamond drill holes for a total of 1040m. Four of the holes were targeted at the outcropping Gossan Burn chalcocite mineralisation and its strike extents as defined by the earlier 2022 soil sampling program. The fifth hole was targeted at an IP chargeability anomaly on the southern side of the interpreted cross fault which contained the outcrop mineralisation

The overall drilling results were disappointing. Two main styles of gold and base-metal mineralisation were encountered:

(1) The first mineralisation style is associated with isolated, deformed quartz-albite ± pyrite-galena- chalcopyrite-sphalerite veins often with gold associated.  The mineralisation is similar to that encountered at the nearby Stronchullin gold prospect and is interesting in that it indicates this type of mineralisation is much more widespread than previously thought. Individual gold grades were relatively low over a 1m interval with a maximum value of 1.67 g/t Au reported in GB22-3. However, the gold values mostly depended on isolated individual veins ranging from 1-10cm in thickness within an interval, meaning actual gold grades in the veins themselves must be relatively high. Veins tended to occur near bedding contacts between the quartzites and the schists and there were no structural or other features to indicate that their frequency may increase to yield potential economic values.

(2) The second style of mineralisation is limited in spatial extent, only encountered in GB22-5 (Figure 1), the furthest hole to the NE. Mineralisation consists of two narrow (<50cm wide) zones of semi-massive pyrite ± chalcopyrite and minor associated quartz-sulphide veining within an amphibole altered deformed Dalradian schists. This style of mineralisation was typically low grade, with sub-economic concentrations of copper (<0.5%), lead and zinc – no gold anomalies were detected here. This style of mineralisation may represent the distal parts of a VMS system; however, ionic leach soil data suggest these anomalies do not extent significantly along strike.

The drilling for the most part reflected the modest values seen in the overlying soils. Neither GB22-1 or GB22-2a, which were aimed at the outcropping chalcocite mineralisation intersected any significant grades, indicating the outcrop is a localized secondary enrichment along the late fault structure.   

Results are presented below.

Table 1: Drill Hole Results

Intersections are downhole intersections. True widths are estimated as 70-90% of downhole intersect length. There were no significant assay results from holes GB22-1, GB22-2A and GB22-7. 

The drilling was undertaken by Priority Drilling who have previously drilled the Stronchullin prospect on the property in 2021. Drilling used a portable light rig mounted on a rubber tracked Morooka and rubber matting was laid to each site from the access track to minimize ground disturbance; all cuttings were collected, bagged and removed from site. Core was drilled to HQ3 wireline size using a triple tube system to maximize recoveries. Drill rigs were aligned with a magnetic compass and downhole surveys were conducted using a Reflex EZ-TRAC system.

Table 2:  Drill hole collar locations
Collar coordinates and in the British Geological Survey (BGS) grid system and were surveyed using a handheld GPS. Units are meters.

Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A") – Q3 2022
The Company has filed its financial statements for the three and nine months ending Q3 2022 and the related MD&A on SEDAR. The documents are available on the Company's website, www.westerngoldexploration.com and www.SEDAR.com.

About Western Gold Exploration
The Company is a mineral exploration company that is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "WGLD". The Company is focused on the exploration of mineral properties in Western Scotland and discovering new opportunities in the Dalradian Belt, targeting historic gold-silver and copper-lead mines in the belt with the potential to develop a mineral resource. Prospects include the Stronchullin gold lead mine, Gossan Burn and Allt Dearg which are all located in the Knapdale Project area. The Company's primary focus for the balance of 2022 and 2023 is expected to be its Lagalochan property, which is an early-stage exploration stage copper-gold porphyry prospect located in Kilmelford, Scotland.  

The Company's Knapdale Gold Copper Project is an early exploration stage project prospective for orogenic quartz-gold-silver lodes that comprises three contiguous sub-properties comprising the Stronchullin gold vein system and a separate copper project at Gossan Burn. Based on the poor results of the 2022 drilling program at the Gossan Burn area within Knapdale, the Company will be reviewing the nature and extent of exploration activities at Knapdale in 2023.

Additional information about the Company is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com under the Company's profile.

QA/QC and Core Sampling Protocols

Company drill core is logged and sampled in a secure core storage facility located near Oban, Scotland. Core samples from the program are cut in half, using a diamond cutting saw, and are sent to OMAC Laboratories Limited in Galway, Ireland (ALS Loughrea; accredited to 170025:2005). This lab is an independent, accredited third-party chemical or spectral testing laboratories. Security measures were taken to ensure the validity and integrity of rock/core/sediment/soil samples taken. All samples are analyzed for gold using Fire Assay-AA techniques (method gold-AA23). Samples returning over 10.0 g/t gold are analyzed utilizing Fire Assay-Gravimetric methods (gold-GRA21). As part of the Company's quality control/quality assurance program (QA/QC), certified reference standards or blanks are routinely inserted into the sample stream every 20th sample (5%).  No QA/QC issues were noted with the results reported herein.

Qualified Person and NI 43-101 Disclosure

Dr. Toby Strauss (CGeol; EurGeol) of Merlyn Consulting Ltd is the Independent Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 who is responsible for the Technical Report titled "Technical Report on the Lagalochan Property, Argyllshire, Scotland" and dated November 29, 2022 relating to the Lagalochan Property. Dr Strauss has reviewed the contents of this press release in relation to the Lagalochan Property, and confirms that it fairly and accurately represents the information in the Technical Report. Dr. Strauss consents to the filing of the Technical Report for regulatory purposes.

David Pym (CGeol) a consultant to the Company, is the Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 who supervised, verified and approved the scientific and technical disclosure relating to the Gossan Burn copper project in this press release on behalf of the Company. Verification includes checking a proportion of the reported assays in the Company database against the issued laboratory assay certificates. In addition, verification has included checking the location and orientation of the drill collars in the Company database against maps and reports.

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to those that address potential quantity and/or grade of minerals, potential for minerals and/or mineral resources, timing and plans for any exploratory drilling and statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs, and current expectations of the Company with respect to the future business activities and operating performance of the Company that may be described herein. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions regarding the future. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding-looking wording such as "may", "expect", "estimate", "anticipate", "intend", "believe" and "continue" or the negative thereof or similar variations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur.

By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur. These assumptions, risks and - 5 - uncertainties include, among other things, the state of the economy in general and capital markets in particular, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2021 available at www.sedar.com, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additionally, the Company undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made by, third parties in respect of the matters discussed above.

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

SOURCE Western Gold Exploration Ltd.