Cashed-up Canadian gold explorer New Found Gold Corp says results of a deep 3D seismic survey could “change the game” at its high-grade Queensway project in Newfoundland, where it has pointed to similarities with the rich Fosterville orogenic gold system in Victoria, Australia.
Eric Sprott-backed New Found Gold expects to start drilling deep targets highlighted by a HiSeis 3D seismic survey in October this year, according to chief operating officer Greg Matheson.
“3D seismic could change the game at Queensway as we look to deeper layers of the gold system, as well as areas more distal from the Appleton Fault corridor,” Matheson said this week.
“Our exploration team has gained a deep understanding of the mineralised system at Queensway through extensive exploration efforts and roughly 425,000m drilled to date.
“By early October, we will be in a position to drill test targets highlighted by the 3D seismic.”

New Found Gold has followed its maiden high-grade gold discovery in 2020 at Keats at the northern end of its wholly-owned, 110km-long Queensway project with a string of promising finds along the key parallel Appleton (AFZ) and JBP fault zones. It expanded a large-scale drilling program to 500,000m earlier this year and says its drilling has mainly been focused on the top 200m or so of the belt, with the average vertical depth of drilling so far about 140m.
“Orogenic gold systems can extend to great depths, and comparing the Queensway project to the Fosterville deposit provides a sense of potential regarding project scale and overall depth potential of mineralisation,” the company says. It launched its “industry-leading 3D seismic survey … a first for Canadian mineral exploration” in April this year.
“Similar surveys completed at the Fosterville mine in Australia identified additional subsurface ore zones,” New Found Gold says. HiSeis, a 14-year-old firm spun out of Western Australia’s Curtin University, was an “industry leader in hard rock seismic surveys”, New Found said. HiSeis says it has done more than 150 seismic surveys in 15 countries.
“The [survey] acquisition phase utilises over 20,000 energy source points generating 3D seismic data across a 47 square-kilometre grid area and is expected to wrap up by early August,” New Found Gold said.
“The planned survey covers 47sq.km with over 260km of source lines, with source points spaced at 12.5m intervals and 23,463 geophone receiver stations. 100m separated source lines and perpendicular 100m separated receiver lines have been constructed to optimise resolution from 200-1000m in depth, but will give good resolution down to 3000m.”
New Found Gold said the seismic survey would allow for “maximum imaging of the structural framework adjacent to the AFZ” and potentially streamline drill targeting and cost.
The Toronto and New York-listed junior has a current market capitalisation around C$1.1 billion and circa-$50m of cash and securities on hand.