Great Pacific requests extension, further drilling for Kesar project

Great Pacific Gold will look to expand on an already successful drilling program at its Kesar project in Eastern Highlands Province.

While the company’s main focus continues to be the Wild Dog project in East New Britain, it predicts further exploration of the Kesar prospect will unlock value that is not currently reflected in the Canada-listed company’s share price.

Kesar is located immediately adjacent and along strike from the Kaimantu mine, operated by K92 Mining. Great Pacific Gold has operated there under an exploration licence, and has recently applied for a two-year extension of that approval.

The original two-year licence was issued to Great Pacific Gold’s subsidiary, Yaendal Minerals, on October 30, 2023.

The original exploration program has revealed multiple high-grade intercepts across 13 diamond drill holes, totaling 3,700m.

At the Anteruno target, one drilll showed 3.13m at 3.67 grams per tonne gold. The Hampore target showed one result of 0.94m at 3.17 g/t gold.

A helicopter-flown mobile MagnetoTellurics geophysics survey was also completed at the site. A comprehensive report on all of the exploration activities will be included in an updated technical report for the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Great Pacific Gold chief executive officer Greg McCunn said the report would also recommend targets for an expanded Kesar drilling program in 2026.

“We are expecting the bulk of our exploration expenditures in the coming year to be spent at Wild Dog, but we are planning a focused follow-up program at Kesar with the objective of unlocking value that we believe is currently not recognised in our share price,” he said.

“We look forward to working with the Mineral Resource Authority in PNG and our local stakeholder and landowner groups to renew the exploration licence for a further two years.”