WGLD Western Gold Exploration Ltd

NORTH BERWICK, Scotland, July 28, 2022 /CNW/ - WESTERN GOLD EXPLORATION LTD. (TSXV: WGLD) (the "Company") is pleased to announce the results of recent exploration work at its 100% owned Lagalochan Copper Gold Porphyry Property ("Lagalochan") in Argyll, Scotland.  

Exploration work for Lagalochan included:

• Completion of an Ionic Leach soil sampling programme, confirming and extending the results of historical deep overburden (DOB) sampling.
• Re-evaluation of historical drill results and exploration data, including the limited evaluation drilling completed in 2018-2019 by a subsidiary of the Company (Lorne Resources Ltd.), prior to the Company acquiring such subsidiary.

As a result of such exploration works, the Company notes:

• Several new exploration targets have been generated which it intends to follow-up on with further work. These exploration targets are shown in Figure 3 below.
• The drilling undertaken by its subsidiary (Lorne Resources Ltd.) at Lagalochan in 2018-2019 confirmed historical grades of the main quartz stockwork zone within the red feldspar porphyry achieved by other companies that drilled Lagalochan in 1984-1985. For example, the Lorne Resources holes LD18-4 intersected 530.5m @ 0.17% Cu, 0.11 g/t Au, 2.7 g/t Ag, 68 ppm Mo from 3m downhole and LD13-1a which intersected 537m @ 0.18% Cu, 0.10 g/t Au, 2.6 g/t Ag, 73 ppm Mo from 2m downhole confirmed and extended results from LD84-15, the best hole from the previous programme which intersected 292.47m @ 0.20% Cu, 0.12 g/t Au, 3.7 g/t Ag, 47 ppm Mo from 1.9m downhole and ended in mineralisation. Tabulated historical results for Lagalochan are presented in Appendix 1 below.
• The quartz stockwork zone at Lagalochan exhibits a strong phyllic overprint of original potassic alteration and indicates that the current bedrock surface is at a shallow erosional level just below the inferred lithocap that has subsequently been eroded away. It is believed that mineralisation in the stockwork zone is open to depth and is interpreted to lie above the inferred progenitor porphyry, which has not been intersected in historical drilling.
• The presence of not only porphyry copper gold mineralisation, but also gold copper skarn and intermediate sulphidation gold silver epithermal type mineralisation in outcrop in various locations proximal to the main stockwork zone.

Harry Dobson, Chairman of the Company, commented: "We are excited about the Lagalochan property. Whilst the existing stockwork mineralisation intercepted in historical drilling is sub-economic, the property shows considerable potential for further discoveries, both at depth beneath the existing stockwork zone and in the proximal skarns and epithermal gold zones. Porphyry complexes can have multiple centres and the size of the alteration zone is indicative of a large intrusive system that has seen no significant exploration since the 1980's. Large scale copper exploration targets remain rare in stable jurisdictions and the property is of strategic interest if economic copper resources can be found."

Lagalochan is a Silurian aged high potassium calc alkaline type porphyry similar to Red Chris in British Columbia, Canada and Bingham Canyon in the USA. It is one of the few known examples of porphyry mineralisation in the Appalachian/Caledonide belt, an important mineral belt extending from Georgia in the USA through Newfoundland in Canada, into Ireland and Scotland and finally Greenland and Norway. The belt is known for its base metal production from Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) deposits such as the Bathurst and Buchans district in Canada and is also an emerging gold district with new discoveries in Newfoundland in Canada and Northern Ireland. The only significant porphyry production being restricted to the Gaspe porphyry deposit in Quebec Canada.

Lagalochan was discovered in the 1980's by BP minerals. The Company acquired its interest in Lagalochan, along with the Knapdale property which includes the Stronchullin orogenic gold occurrence and the Gossan Burn copper gold occurrence, when the Company completed its acquisition of UK company Western Gold Exploration Limited and its subsidiary Lorne Resources Ltd. in October 2020.  Surface dimensions of the 0.1% grade contour for the stockwork zone are 450x 250m oval body steeply plunging to NE to a depth of at least 500 vertical metres. The stockwork zone is transected by a NE trending intensely phyllic carbonate altered porphyry breccia zone which is locally associated with higher gold grades and is destructive of primary copper mineralisation.  

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.

In the Kilmelford area the Company has a copper gold porphyry prospect within the Lagalochan intrusive breccia complex. First explored by BP minerals in the 1980's the area has seen little work since. The Lagalochan porphyry system is a copper gold porphyry stock with minor molybdenum associated and represents one of the few examples of mineralised porphyry intrusive within the Appalachian/Dalradian terranes. Lower temperature zinc lead bearing shears and epithermal gold bearing vein systems are also noted in the area. Gold rich skarn mineralisation has also been rock-chipped in outcropping carbonate rocks bordering the intrusive complex.

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

David Pym (CGeol), a consultant of the Company, is the Qualified Person (as defined by National Instrument 43-101) who supervised, verified and approved the scientific and technical disclosure in this press release on behalf of the Company. Verification included checking a proportion of the reported assays (excluding historical) 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 historic maps and reports.

Neither the Company nor the Qualified Person can at this time independently verify the historical 1984-1985 drill results on Lagalochan (see Appendix 1 below), including the procedures used for sample collection and analysis. Therefore, readers are encouraged to exercise appropriate caution when evaluating historical drill results. Historical drill holes may be considered useful for exploration purposes but not for resource classification.

Drill core by Lorne Resources (now a subsidiary of the Company) from its historic drilling (see Appendix 1 below), was logged and sampled in a secure core storage facility located near Oban, Scotland. Core samples from the program were cut in half, using a diamond cutting saw, and were 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 were analysed for gold using Fire Assay-AA techniques (method gold-AA23). Samples returning over 10.0 g/t gold were analysed utilising Fire Assay-Gravimetric methods (gold-GRA21). As part of the Company's quality control/quality assurance program (QA/QC), certified reference standards or blanks were routinely inserted into the sample stream every 20th sample (5%). No QAQC issues were noted with the results reported herein.

QAQC procedures for the historic 1984-85 drilling could not be verified.

This press 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 forward-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, 2020 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.

*Intersections are downhole intersections.  Using a 0.1% Cu cutoff and 10% internal dilution. Estimated true widths vary from 20-60% of downhole intersect length. Cu % metres is calculated as copper grade x interval thickness, only intersections with a Cu% metre value >= 2 are displayed here. Drillhole collar locations are listed in Table 2 below.

SOURCE Western Gold Exploration Ltd