Mining News: News Nuggets: Endurance cuts deal to expand Elephant Mountain gold project

Endurance Gold Corp. April 3 said it has entered into an option to acquire the Trout and Wolverine properties immediately northeast of its Elephant Mountain gold project in Interior Alaska. Trout hosts two known gold targets - Trout and South Fork. The 1,000- by 300-meter Trout target is an intrusive-hosted soil anomaly that has returned soil values of up to 1,880 parts per billion gold. The highest grade rock sample collected at this target assayed at 9.64 grams per metric ton gold. The South Fork target is a 10- to 20-meter wide gold-bearing structural zone that appears to extend for at least 1,000 meters. Rock samples collected by previous companies along the ridgeline that hosts this structure have returned up to 11.98 g/t gold. Endurance said further soil sampling, rock sampling and possible trenching is required to delimit the target areas and prioritize drill targets. The Trout and South Fork targets are believed to be sources for the placer gold that has been mined from the south fork of Quail Creek since the early 1900s. The Wolverine property hosts at least two gold targets. Wolverine, a 300- by 300-meter target outlined by anomalous gold in soil and rock samples is the most promising such target. Several less explored targets within the Wolverine property also exist, including a historically reported intrusive-hosted stibnite prospect and a prominent structure, similar to the South Fork target. Further soil sampling, rock sampling and possible trenching is required to define the target areas and prioritize drill targets. Under the terms of the letter agreement with a private vendor, Endurance can earn full ownership of Trout and Wolverine by completing US$200,000 in exploration expenditures and paying the vendor US$180,000 in cash by the end of 2024, as well as issuing the seller 300,000 Endurance shares by the end of 2022.

-Shane Lasley