It said the latest programme would focus on the Scallywag target, situated within the Havieron licence, which comprised several magnetic anomalies that each had the potential for gold and/or copper mineralisation.

The company raised US$3.5 million at the end of July through a placing and subscription to fund exploration at its Paterson project.

Greatland noted it had completed ground gravity over the Scallywag target late last year, with results showing gravity high coincident with magnetic targets over around 2km of strike.

The new programme will test the multiple regional targets, which were mostly similar to those at Havieron, with the first phase to start this month and include mobile metal ion (MMI) sampling.

The results of the MMI sampling will then be reviewed alongside detailed ground gravity and airborne magnetic data to decide on the most prospective areas for a maiden drilling programme.

The programme will take place at the same time as the programmes at Black Hills and Havieron, with drilling at the latter returning good results, including 121m at 2.93g/t gold and 0.23% copper from 497m, with peak gold of 137.69g/t and copper to 4.11%.

Greatland CEO Gervaise Heddle said over the next year, the company planned to carry out a systematic programme of regional exploration to test a number of additional regional targets over its licences.

"Scallywag hosts coincident magnetic and gravity anomalies and is a good starting point for our exploration programme because of its relative proximity to Havieron and its potential to host the prospective basement sequence at depths of less than 100 metres," he said.

Greatland's shares were up 1.27% Monday at 1.2p (US1.5c).