Bonanza Gold-Silver Grades At The Eastside Gold Project
RENO, NV - Allegiant Gold Ltd. reported bonanza grades in the best drill results to date in the Original Pit Zone, at the 100% owned Eastside gold project in Nevada. Eastside presently hosts a current NI 43-101 pit-constrained Inferred resource of 996,000 ounces of gold and 7.8 million ounces of silver and is open in all directions.
Peter Gianulis, CEO, said, “The results from the recent drill program at Eastside are simply the best received since the Company made the initial discovery. The project has exceeded our expectations and continues to improve and positively surprise us with its potential. We remain focused on executing our business plan and are well on our way to outlining a multi-million-ounce deposit at Eastside.”
Highlights of the 9-hole (3,673 meters) RC drill program: Hole 243 included 2.55 g/t Au over 147.8 meters (3.17 g/t Au over 117.3m); Hole 243 is the best drill intercept to date at the project; Hole 243 was a 100m step-out from the closest hole in the Original Pit and is open west, east and south; Hole 243 is well within an open-pit modeling scenario; Significant silver in Holes 243 and 239; Strong gold intercepts in Holes 239, 243, 244 and 245; Mineralization encountered in 7 of 9 holes; and Eastside remains open in all directions and at depth in both the Original Pit Zone and the Castle Zone.
Allegiant has drilled over 210 holes over the past 8 years in building a significant 1mm ounce gold inferred resource. Over 284 meters of the 428 meters drilled were mineralized in Hole 243 and, utilizing a 0.10 g/t Au cut-off, the hole delivered 2.55 g/t Au over 147.8 meters (3.17 g/t Au over 117.3m using a 0.20 g/t Au cut-off) commencing from a depth of 172 meters. Equally important is that Hole 243 ended in gold mineralization, with the bottom running 12.2m of 2.24 g/t Au (within a 55m interval of 0.92 g/t Au). Excellent silver mineralization was also encountered.
Strong Gold Intercepts in Hole 239, 244 and 245. The success during the recent drill program was not limited solely to Hole 243. Excellent grades and intercepts were found in additional holes with strong mineralization occurring at the bottom of the holes implying the deposit continues to remain open at depth.
Significant Silver Intercepts in Holes 239, 243 and 244. Excellent silver intercepts were also encountered during this most recent drilling program. Using a 10 g/t Ag cutoff, Hole 239 encountered 6.1 meters of 113.35 g/t Ag at the bottom of the hole leading us to believe that it remains wide-open at depth. In Hole 243, an intercept of 93.3 g/t Ag over 44.2 meters was identified. Other silver intercepts were found in Hole 241 and Hole 244. The Original Pit Zone at Eastside hosts approximately 7.8 million ounces of silver per the most recent 43-101 compliant resource estimate dated January 2020. Allegiant continues to believe that there remains significant upside potential to discover additional silver, though gold continues to be the primary mineralization.
Gold and silver at the Original Pit Zone is hosted mainly in young rhyolite domes and dikes (7.2 MYBP) cutting through andesite flows and lahar, lacustrine tuffs, and rhyodacite flows and plugs. Eighty five percent of the drilled gold intercepts are hosted in rhyolite. Important alteration includes multiple generations of quartz in stock works, replacement illite, adularia (both as flooding and in veins), and a variety of iron oxides mostly filling fractures. The domes at the Original Pit are the northernmost two of a highly prospective dome field, elongated north-south, and measuring 10 km by 2 km. The dome field contains 41 separate domes and is entirely covered by Allegiant’s claim block. Higher grade intercepts in drill hole 243 appear to be associated with stronger quartz veining than usual. Future work programs in the Original Pit Zone will focus on defining the extent of this high-grade zone to better understand the implications on resource growth and mine planning and economics.