Endurance Gold (TSXV: EDG; US-OTC: ENDGF) intersected fresh gold-antimony areas at its Reliance brownfield project in British Columbia, as the company works to build on an initial 1.45-million oz. gold resource outlined earlier this year.
Highlight hole DDH26-140 extended the Imperial zone by 50 metres to the northwest and cut 5.2 metres grading 5.89 grams gold per tonne and 0.19% antimony from 405 metres depth, Endurance reported Wednesday. In the Lower Imperial Zone, hole DDH26-137 extended the zone by 55 metres to the southeast and returned 16.2 metres at 2.24 grams gold and 0.06% antimony from 526 metres depth.
“Today’s results extend both Imperial horizons along strike,” Atrium Research analyst Ben Pirie said in a note on Wednesday. “More notable to us is the growing number of narrow, high-grade structures in the footwall. With the deeper Imperial results supporting underground growth, we look to the Crown assays and first Eagle Offset results as the next catalysts for the near-surface resource.”
Drilling this year has expanded the size of the Imperial and Lower Imperial zones and identified multiple high-grade structures beyond the previously defined mineralized zones, Endurance CEO Robert T. Boyd said in a release.
“These results demonstrate the opportunity to add mineralized volume along the Royal Shear and associated footwall.”
1.45M oz resource
The latest drilling could help Endurance expand Reliance’s initial gold resource as it advances a preliminary economic assessment for the project. The resource currently stands at 19.6 million inferred tonnes grading 2.3 grams gold per tonne for 1.45 million oz., including 15.6 million pit-constrained tonnes at 2.23 grams for 1.12 million ounces. Drilling this year has returned antimony mineralization, but the resource didn’t include that critical metal.
Endurance shares gained 7% to 38¢ apiece on Wednesday morning in Toronto, valuing the company at $75 million (US$53.6 million). The stock has traded in a 12-month range of 22¢ to 90¢.
Gold, antimony results
Also in the Imperial zone, hole DDH26-130A pierced an under-drilled part of the Royal Shear fault contact. It returned 11.1 metres grading 2.97 grams gold and 0.03% antimony from 432 metres depth, including 8 metres at 2.42 grams gold and 0.31% antimony.
Hole DDH26-134A cut 10.9 metres at 3.96 grams gold and 1.92% antimony from 304.5 metres depth.
The results are from more than 10,200 metres of drilling across 25 holes at the Eagle, Crown and Imperial zones, Endurance said.
Reliance sits on a site that was explored for antimony more than a century ago and then hosted the Minto gold mine which produced about 17,500 oz. from 1934 until 1940. The project is about 180 km northeast of Vancouver.