Ardiden Limited announced that it has completed the Option Agreement with Exiro Minerals Corp. securing 100% ownership of the New Patricia landholding within the Western Hub of the Company's Pickle Lake Gold Project. The Pickle Lake Gold Project is a continuous district-scale 1,088km¦ (108,800 hectare) gold landholding, located east of Red Lake, Ontario Canada in the well-endowed Uchi Geological sub-province and the completion of the Agreement sees Ardiden strengthen its position within the region. The New Patricia property is surrounded by numerous currently producing and historic gold mines and is located within a region which has seen an increase in gold exploration with Evolution, Newmont, Kinross as well as
numerous other exploration companies all currently active in the area. New Patricia, includes the highly prospective Esker Gold Prospect, which was part of the Company's 2022 drill campaign. The landholding extends over 30 km of this prospective geological setting and is directly along strike from the Golden Patricia mine which produced 619,796 oz Au @ 15.2 g/t Au1 between 1988-1997. The Golden Patricia mine adjoins Ardiden's Dorothy-Dobie Gold Prospect, where recent drilling intersected broad zones (26-38m wide) of mineralisation in a parallel secondary structure to the narrow high-grade primary structure that extends for over 60km across the Company's Western Hub. In addition to multiple narrow, high-grade intercepts, 2022 drilling at the Western Hub intercepted broad, anomalous mineralised zones in the secondary structure at the Dorothy and Dobie Prospects. These secondary and tertiary structures remain open at depth and along strike with over 30km of untested ground and include the following results: DR22-01 - 30.65m @ 1.57 g/t Au from 31.85m; DR22-02 - 38.48m @ 0.97 g/t Au from 50.52m; DB22-01 - 26.51m @ 2.1g/t Au from 77.8m. The Company is currently planning a series of short drill hole targets to strategically test these broad structures to gain a better understanding of the semi-massive to massive sulphide mineralisation adjacent and parallel to the secondary structure. In conjunction with the structural interpretation being conducted, Ardiden has also identified historical drilling in the secondary structure that currently displays lithological continuity, semi massive to massive sulphides and over 7km of untested strike length that remains open at depth. Drilling at the Dorothy and Dobie prospects is anticipated to commence in late first quarter of 2023.