Endurance Gold Corporation (EDG -- TSX.V, "Endurance") is pleased to announce that the summer 2015 exploration program has commenced on its 4,960 acre Elephant Mountain Gold Property (the "Property") in Alaska. Exploration has confirmed an intrusive-hosted target area of at least 1.8 by 0.6 kilometres in size encompassing two gold-arsenic soil and rock sample anomalies (the North and South Zone Targets) and an untested IP chargeability anomaly (the Central Zone Target) located between the two soil anomalies.
The 2015 program consists of drilling power-assisted auger surficial samples in a grid pattern that will focus on the Central and South Zones to better define and prioritize targets for
Diamond drilling. The program has commenced with the clearing and brushing-out of access trails from the local placer mining community of Eureka, followed by the auger drilling program latter in the season.
The Property is located near Eureka in the Rampart-Manley Hot Springs area of Alaska about 76 miles (123 kilometres) west of Fairbanks. The Property can be accessed by road and all-terrane vehicle trails from Eureka. The Property area was explored for gold by Placer Dome, Inc. ("PDI") culminating in the drilling of ten holes in 1992.
In 2014, at the South Zone Target, an area of no significant outcrop, the Company completed an orientation survey of thirty-six (36) power-assisted auger soil samples at recovery depths of between 0.81 and 1.52 metres ("m"). These deep soil samples, with peak values up to 320 parts per billion ("ppb") gold at 1.52 m (5 feet) depth, together with shallower soil samples collected in 2013, have confirmed a strong and continuous 600 m long soil anomaly which exceeds 100 ppb gold. The survey also confirmed that the South Zone soil anomaly has unconsolidated cover and that power-assisted augers are an ideal sampling methodology to determine soil anomaly targets closer to the bedrock interface. PDI identified a soil anomaly measuring about 1,000 m by 300 m, exceeding 20 ppb gold, in this same area which is now interpreted to have been offset from the bedrock source by downslope movement. South Zone Target surface grab rock sample values have returned the highest gold values on the Property which include 12.98 grams per tonne ("g/t"), 5.21 g/t, 4.44 g/t, 3.02 g/t, and 2.59 g/t gold associated with iron oxide stained and altered granitic rocks. In 1991, PDI also collected a grab sample from the South Zone Target that assayed 12 ounces per ton gold (411.4 g/t gold).
The North Zone Target is a gold-arsenic soil geochemical anomaly, within an area of some outcrop mapped as altered granite. The North Zone PDI soil anomaly is approximately 1,200 m by 500 m wide, with peak values of up to 1,540 ppb gold. PDI completed eight (8) drill holes on this North Zone Target. The best of the PDI drill holes returned an average grade of 0.015 ounce per ton gold (0.514 g/t gold) over an interval of 326 feet (99.4 m) and bottomed in mineralization. Below the oxidized zone, gold mineralization in the drill core is associated with arsenopyrite and native gold related to quartz veinlet stock-work, in silicified, fractured intrusive. The intrusive host is a large multi-phase Cretaceous-aged diorite to granite pluton that intrudes quartzite, siltstone and shale. Between 2012 and 2014 the Company collected seven grab samples within North Zone Target which returned gold values of between 1.01 g/t and 1.92 g/t gold.
The Central Zone Target, an area of no outcrop, is located between the North and the South Zones and is interpreted to be an area of altered granite. After PDI observed disseminated sulphides in core logging, they completed a gradient induced polarization (IP) resistivity and dipole-dipole IP geophysical survey on the Property. A chargeable anomaly with dimensions of about 1,500 m by 500 m was identified between the the North and South Zones. This geophysical target was never tested with
Diamond drilling, and remains unexplained.
Summary figures showing a compilation of results from the North, South and Central Zones are available on the Company's website at
www.endurancegold.com.
The Elephant Mountain Gold Property, located within an active placer gold mining camp, is interpreted to be a reduced intrusion-related gold system (RIRG) similar to the Fort Knox Mine, Ryan Lode, and True North deposits located in the nearby Fairbanks Gold Mining district in Alaska, as well as the Brewery Creek and Dublin Gulch deposits in the Yukon. All of these RIRG deposits are related to late Cretaceous-aged intrusive events within the Tintina Gold Province of Alaska and the Yukon, and are associated with historic placer gold mining.
Under the terms of the option agreement with the private vendor, Endurance can earn 100% interest in the Property by completing a total of US$200,000 (US$114,000 incurred) in exploration expenditures, US$200,000 (US$45,000 paid) in cash payments and delivering 400,000 (100,000 shares issued) Endurance common shares by December 31, 2017. The option is subject to a 2% net smelter royalty ("NSR"), and Endurance can purchase half of the NSR at any time.
About Endurance
Endurance Gold Corporation is a company focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of highly prospective North American mineral properties with the potential to develop world-class deposits. The Company's exploration focus, for projects operated by Endurance, is intrusive-related mineral systems with potential for discovery of major new precious or rare metals deposits, and its business plan offers shareholders exposure to several majority-owned exploration projects with significant discovery potential such as the Elephant Mountain Gold Property in Alaska, the Rattlesnake Hills Gold Property in Wyoming, and the Bandito Rare Earth-Niobium Property in the Yukon. The company also owns 35.5% in the Pardo joint venture, a Precambrian-aged paleoplacer gold system. Please visit
www.endurancegold.com.
ENDURANCE GOLD CORPORATION
Robert T. Boyd
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT
Endurance Gold Corporation
(604) 682-2707,
[email protected]
www.endurancegold.com
Robert T. Boyd, P.Geo. is a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 and supervised the compilation of the information forming the basis for this release. The 1992 Placer Dome activity preceded the implementation of NI 43-101 and furthermore, the original data and reports, including the geophysical reports, have not been completely reviewed by the Company. Therefore the historic data summarized in this release should not be relied upon. Bedrock grab samples are selective by nature and are unlikely to represent average grades within the bedrock when drilled. All 2012, 2013, and 2014 rock and soil samples were analyzed at ALS Minerals using Au-ST43, Au-OG43, and ME-MS41.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. This news release may contain forward looking statements based on assumptions and judgments of management regarding future events or results that may prove to be inaccurate as a result of factors beyond its control, and actual results may differ materially from the expected results.