New Found Gold’s Iceberg delivers more high-grade hits

New Found Gold (TSXV: NFG; NYSE-AM: NFGC) reported strong results Tuesday from diamond drilling at its high-grade Iceberg zone in northeast Newfoundland.  

Highlights from the drilling include hole NFGC-23-1128, which returned 13.9 metres grading 13.1 grams gold per tonne from 82.1 metres depth and 7.6 metres grading 12.6 grams gold from 61.6 metres, the company said in a news release.

Hole NFGC-23-1141 returned 10.7 metres grading 35.6 grams gold from 138.9 metres depth, 20.4 metres of 6.88 grams gold from 109.3 metres and 6.7 metres grading 10.5 grams gold from 205.4 metres. 

Those holes were 25- and 50-metre step-downs, respectively, from the high-grade intervals reported last month at Iceberg. The Iceberg target is located 300 metres northeast of the Keats Main target along the prospective Appleton Fault Zone (AFZ). That zone is part of New Found’s larger, 100%-owned Queensway project that comprises 1,662 sq. km and is located 15 km west of Gander, N.L. The Trans-Canada Highway runs across the project. 

Mineralization at Iceberg starts at surface and has now been drill-defined over 50 metres in length and traced to more than 80 metres down-dip. 

“Open in all directions, Iceberg continues to deliver encouraging results, demonstrates good continuity of the high-grade and exhibits characteristics akin to the Keats Main zone reaffirming our interpretation that this new discovery is indeed the eastern continuation,” COO Greg Matheson said. “This discovery is of particular importance because it confirms that the Keats-Baseline Fault persists over a strike length of at least 1.4 km extending from the AFZ in an east-northeast direction.”

Drilling is ongoing in search of more near-surface, high-grade gold along what is projected to be the Keats-Baseline fault zone. The drilling is part of New Found’s 500,000-metre program at Queensway, and assays are pending for 55,772 metres of core. 

In a research note on Tuesday, mining analyst Jacques Wortman with Laurentian Bank Securities wrote that the impact of the Iceberg results is “slightly positive” and continues to show the continuity of mineralization and expansion potential at the site.

Wortman added that following previous increases in New Found’s share price on the back of high-grade drill results, rebalancing of the GDXJ and higher gold prices, he expects the stock to continue to gain on the results. 

Laurentian now puts its net asset value per share for New Found at $8.46 (up from $8.40) and maintains its “buy” recommendation.  

NFG shares were up 5% on Tuesday afternoon at $7.27 in a 52-week window of $4.03 and $9.64. The company has a market capitalization of $1.2 billion.

The Queensway property is divided by Gander Lake into North and South Portions. In the north, drilling has targeted 9.5 km of the Appleton fault and 12.4 km of the JBP fault. In the south, drills are testing targets along a 14-km stretch of the Appleton fault. The company has identified potential gold-bearing mineralization along a strike length of 105 km.