Results From South Fork Target In Alaska
VANCOUVER, BC - Endurance Gold Corporation reported encouraging results from a rock and soil sampling program on the South Fork Target. The South Fork Target is located on the Trout Property which was acquired earlier this year to expand and enhance the exploration potential of the Company’s Elephant Property. The Elephant Mountain Project, which includes the Elephant, Trout and Wolverine Properties, can be easily accessed by the all-weather Elliott Highway located 76 miles northwest of Fairbanks within the Rampart-Eureka-Manley Hot Springs placer gold mining districts near Eureka, Alaska.
The South Fork Target is located approximately two km northeast of the Trout Target. Initial assay results from 2017 sampling on South Fork returned gold values up to 6.60 parts per million (ppm) and 1.94% lead. Follow-up rock samples were collected and returned gold values including 10.35 ppm, 6.73 ppm, 5.15 ppm, 4.10 ppm, and 3.53 ppm, confirming the gold potential associated with one or more structural linear features. The three highest gold-in-rock samples collected in August also returned 0.48% lead, 1.280% lead, and 1.205% lead respectively. Elevated arsenic is also associated with the higher gold values in rock. Mineralization is related to oxidized sulphides associated with quartz veining, vein stockwork, and quartz healed breccia hosted in hornfels altered clastic sediments. Hand trenching was also completed. The most significant area of the trench exposed the quartz-breccia over about 9 meter (m) in estimated true width associated with quartz breccia and quartz vein stockwork with slickensides and oxidized sulphides. Chip sampling averaged 0.547 ppm gold over 9.14 m including 0.846 ppm gold over 4.57 m. With the trench assay and other rock samples the quartz-breccia mineralization has now been confirmed in rocks over an east-west trend distance of 250 m.
"We are pleased that the South Fork anomaly has advanced to become a sixth drill target at Elephant” said Robert Boyd, President and CEO. "The frequency of identification of higher grade gold-in-rock samples over a trend area of at least 250 m is encouraging and warrants additional trenching to expose these structures, soil sampling to better define the strike extent of the mineralized structures, and initial drill testing.”
Results from 76 soil samples received to date cover about a 500 x 250 m area. While the South Fork anomaly has significantly higher grade gold-in-rocks than the Trout Target, the soil signature at South Fork is much more subtle for gold and other elements than the Trout Target. Soil sampling has defined an east-west trending 350 m x 25 m (+20 parts per billion (ppb)) gold-in-soil anomaly directly associated with 10.35 ppm and 6.6 ppm gold-in-rock samples. Approximately 90 m to the north, a sub-parallel 200 m x 25 m (+20 ppb) gold-in-soil anomaly has also been defined associated with a gold-in-rock quartz-breccia sample of 6.73 ppm gold. These two east-west trends are also defined by anomalous arsenic (+50 ppm) and lead-in-soil (+50 ppm).
The Elephant Mountain Project which hosts at least six km-scale gold targets associated with a Cretaceous aged intrusive complex and hornfels alteration that extends over a strike length of about 12 km. Five of these gold targets are associated with greater than +100 ppb gold-in-soil and multiple +1 grams per tonne gold in rock samples.
Next Steps – With the identification of this South Fork Target and the Trout Target reported, the Company has now identified six drill targets supported by chargeability anomalies and gold-in-soil at the Elephant Mountain Project. Further soil sampling to increase sampling density and expand the trend potential is also warranted. Minor soil and rock sample results are still pending on the Wolverine Target and will be reported once available. The Company has deferred the implementation of a drill program until the spring.