Westhaven Announces 2021 Drill Plans for its Shovelnose Gold Property

Westhaven Gold Corp., a gold-focused exploration company, announced its drill plans for 2021 at its 17,623-ha Shovelnose gold property.

The Shovelnose gold property is situated inside the potential Spences Bridge Gold Belt (SBGB), bordering the Coquihalla Highway 30 km to the south of Merritt, British Columbia.

Having closed the previously announced $15 million bought deal financing, plus having qualified for an additional $2 million Mining Exploration Tax Credit (METC1), the Company is fully funded for 2021 and well into the 2022 season.

Gareth Thomas, President and CEO, Westhaven Gold Corp.

“Objectives for 2021 are to find more gold-silver zones on the Shovelnose property, complete a maiden resource at the South Zone, and extend the high-grade mineralization at the newly discovered FMN and Franz Zones. With the financing now complete we’ve requested the assay lab to release all finalized assays. We will release assays once received and interpreted,” Thomas added.

Plans for 2021

• On February 4^th, 2021, drilling restarted, with the focus of the first drill being the expansion of the gold-silver mineralization intercepted at the newly identified FMN zone. This drill will continue in the trend toward the Franz Zone where 39.40 g/t silver and 7.78 m of 14.84 g/t gold were intercepted last fall.
• On February 18^th, 2021, a second rig started drilling at the South Zone and will first focus on infill and step-out drilling at the South Zone.
• Finish a maiden resource at the South Zone.
• Around 40,000 m of diamond drilling, the focus of most of which is on exploration targets, such as those produced from DC and CSAMT Resistivity surveys done in 2020.
• A huge regional exploration program will target features set out by work executed in 2020 and previous years. Activities will consist of mapping, prospecting, soil sampling, and stream sediment.
• Initial metallurgical test work has started on the South Zone.

Westhaven profits from the British Columbia Mining Exploration Tax Credit (METC)—a permanent incentive to promote investment in the mining sector.

The METC is a refundable British Columbia income tax credit for qualified individuals and corporations performing grassroots mineral exploration in British Columbia and is worth 30% of qualified mining exploration expenses.

Westhaven’s 2020 qualifying exploration expenditures have helped the company qualify, thereby enabling it to file a METC of $2,079,000 later in 2021.