Westhaven Commences Drilling at Its Shovelnose Gold Project

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 20, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Westhaven Gold Corp. (TSX-V:WHN) is pleased to announce that exploration drilling has commenced on its flagship, high-grade 17,623-hectare Shovelnose Gold Property, located 30 kilometres (km) south of Merritt, British Columbia, adjacent to the Coquihalla Highway and within the prospective Spences Bridge Gold Belt (SBGB).

A preliminary economic assessment (“PEA”) from the South Zone, the first of six prospective zones of mineralization identified at Shovelnose since 2018, was announced on July 18, 2023 (Link to News Release). The PEA identified a robust, low-cost, high margin mining opportunity delivering a post-tax IRR and NPV (6%) of 32.3% and $222 Million, respectively, using a gold price of $1800 per ounce. Additional resource modelling on adjacent discoveries drill tested in 2023, proximal to the South Zone, including at Franz and FMN, remains ongoing.

The spring 2024 drilling campaign at Shovelnose will consist of approximately 4000 metres of diamond drilling, primarily within and along the highly prospective, 4 km long, Vein Zone One trend, host to the South Zone resource and two additional high-grade gold discoveries: FMN and Franz. The program has been initiated following the recent receipt of a 5-year, 650 hole drilling permit (Link to News Release) and, in addition to Zone One trend targets, drilling will test a variety of priority, un-tested targets identified from sampling and prospecting efforts in 2023 combined with a recently completed structural analysis.

Gareth Thomas, President & CEO commented, “Building on the success of our first PEA in 2023, Shovelnose remains an important anchor for our ongoing exploration efforts in the highly prospective and accessible Spences Bridge Gold Belt in 2024. Our aim with the spring program is to test newly identified structural targets, both proximal to the South Zone resource, as well as within the broader 4 km Vein Zone One trend, which is already host to several additional discoveries, but remains underexplored overall.”

Initial Drill Targets

• FMN SE: targeting a potential extension of the newly discovered multi-metre high-grade gold-silver quartz vein mineralization identified at FMN which returned 23.03 metres (m) of 37.24 g/t gold (Au) and 209.52 g/t silver (Ag), including 1.12m of 294 g/t Au and 2,110 g/t Ag.
  
• MIK: step-out drilling at the south end of the 180m long MIK Vein Zone which returned 3.68 metres (m) of 17.61 g/t gold (Au) in 2023.