Reward Minerals has secured approval for the first-ever drilling at its Jackpot gold-copper prospect in Newfoundland, with a seven-hole campaign expected to begin within days. New soil results have also extended the exploration story across a 1.2-kilometre corridor, including a 378ppb gold anomaly at High Stakes.
- Approval for up to seven diamond holes at Jackpot
- Approximately 600 metres of drilling planned
- Drilling expected to begin shortly after 16 September site works
- 378ppb gold soil result at newly identified High Stakes
- Jackpot, Bingo and High Stakes define at least 1.2km of prospective strike
First Jackpot drilling clears the regulatory hurdle
Reward Minerals Limited (ASX:RWD) is about to test a gold-copper prospect that has been known for decades but never drilled. The company has received statutory approval from Newfoundland and Labrador authorities for up to seven diamond holes at the Jackpot Prospect within its Mountain Pond Gold Project, with site access works scheduled to begin on 16 September and drilling expected a few days later.
The initial campaign is planned to cover approximately 600 metres of HQ-oriented diamond core, with holes ranging from 40 to 160 metres deep. The design is intended to test the depth and strike extensions of a quartz vein and associated shear zone exposed at surface, rather than simply confirm the existing outcrop.
Surface grades provide the opening case
Jackpot’s geological case rests on surface sampling rather than drilling. Historic rock chips returned assays as high as 23.77 grams per tonne gold and 7.48% copper, while Reward’s recent confirmation sampling produced results including 8.16g/t gold with 0.27% copper, 4.61g/t gold with 0.65% copper and 1.77g/t gold with 1.77% copper.
Those numbers are notable, but they are surface rock-chip results and do not establish the width, continuity or depth of the mineralisation. That is the work now assigned to the drill rig. Reward says the project has no reported historic drilling, making the coming campaign the first direct test of the system beneath the outcrop.
New High Stakes anomaly extends the target corridor
The exploration footprint has expanded beyond Jackpot. Gold assays from 333 soil samples have sharpened the Bingo anomaly and identified a new anomaly at High Stakes, around 800 metres northeast of Jackpot along strike, with a peak result of 378 parts per billion gold.
Together, Jackpot, Bingo and High Stakes form a prospective corridor extending at least 1.2 kilometres along the Sullivan Pond Fault trend. Reward has completed follow-up rock-chip sampling at Bingo and High Stakes, with those results expected within three to five days. Final ICP-34 multi-element results are expected over the coming weeks and are intended to help assess associated base-metal and alteration patterns.
Assays will decide whether the story moves underground
Once drilling is complete, core will be transported to Reward’s facility in Springdale for logging, photography, cutting and sampling before analysis at laboratories in Newfoundland. The campaign is expected to take about three weeks, with results to be released as they become available.
The filing itself flags the important limitation: the soil program was reconnaissance in nature and is insufficient to establish mineral-resource continuity. The next meaningful test is therefore not another surface anomaly, but whether the Jackpot vein and shear zone carry coherent mineralisation through the planned holes. That distinction will matter more than the headline grade when the first assays arrive.
Bottom Line?
Reward has moved Mountain Pond from surface exploration to a genuine subsurface test, but the investment case still depends on whether the first 600 metres of drilling demonstrate continuity beyond the outcrop.
Questions in the middle?
- Will the maiden holes intersect the Jackpot mineralisation at depth and along strike?
- Can the Bingo and High Stakes anomalies produce rock-chip results strong enough to justify further drilling?
- Will forthcoming ICP-34 data reveal a coherent gold-copper alteration system across the 1.2-kilometre corridor?