One of the best gold exploration stories of the last year keeps getting better with each news release. Endurance Gold (TSX-V:EDG, OTC:ENDGF) has quietly delivered some of the best drill results in the Canadian gold exploration space at its Reliance Gold Project in the Bralorne Mining District of British Columbia. I could spend hours singing Endurance's praises but it would be better for you to review the corporate presentation and the company's news releases for yourself. I recently had the opportunity to connect with Endurance Gold CEO Robert Boyd to discuss the latest set of drill results from Reliance. The conversation was insightful and I learned several new things about Reliance, and Endurance's other projects that I did not know previously. 


Goldfinger:

It’s good to speak with you today Robert. Endurance has been drilling for more than three months now, in this phase of drilling. You started with RC drilling, and transitioned to diamond drilling about a month ago. Based on your release today, I see that you have now completed 15 diamond drill holes. So, why don't you give us an update on how the diamond drilling is going?

Robert Boyd:

Thanks Rob, I'm happy to provide you with an update on our drilling statistics. So, as of July 31st, 15 holes have been drilled, and we've completed about 3,100 meters of drilling. So far we have reported results from six of these holes including four more drill holes today. There will be more results reported by the end of August, The Eagle area we're testing is a pretty interesting area, with a lot of alteration, silicification, and numerous mineralized areas. So, there's a lot of core cutting that's going to be done to get the samples into the lab. So, that's a good sign.

For the four holes announced today, number 25, number 26, number 27 and number 28 we have again reported some very encouraging drill intersections. The results and core logging indicate that we're getting a better understanding of the geology of the feeder structures for the Eagle Zone. Most significant about the results so far, is that we're into multiple feeder zones and we've now identified probably about four quartz vein sequences, or brecciated quartz veins between five, and 52 meters horizontal width. Typically on the margins of these veins is where the gold-mineralized breccias are located

Hole number 21-020, the key discovery hole up there, for which we identified and named the 020 Target, is one of these gold-mineralized breccias, located on the margin of a large quartz vein and represents one of these feeder structures for the shallow dipping Eagle Zone. Since we have observed four possible five to 52 meters wide weakly mineralized quartz veins, and the best gold mineralization seems to be related, or concentrated, on the intensely brecciated margins of those veins, then there are eight potential gold-mineralized corridors within the 300 x 130 meter area that we have now defined as the Eagle South Feeder Zone target Area and one or more of these gold-mineralized breccias became the feeder structures that fed into the shallower dipping Eagle Zone structure that has now been traced out for 435 meters of strike.

So, that's pretty encouraging. All of this compliments the previously reported RC, and 2021 diamond drilling. The first two 2022 holes we reported in mid July which had excellent results. The results we reported today included intersections like eight grams over 13.5 meters, and 8.3 grams over 11.9 meters, and 16.66 grams gold, over 4.3 meters. One of those good intersections is hosted within a broader zone that runs 4.16 grams gold over 30 meters.

Some of the drill intersections we are getting are deep. They're well below the Eagle Zone, so it's definitely, definitely indicating that this is a deeper seated feature below the Eagle Zone. So, some of these hits that we're reporting started 198 meters down hole, so that is about 100 meters vertically below surface. So, they're well below what we drilled off in prior campaigns on the shallow dipping near-surface Eagle Zone. So, they're definitely feeder features or deep seated features. So, that's pretty encouraging.

Our goal now is to continue to open it up to the Southeast and we are now in the process of assembling new drill pads, to chase both the Eagle Zone and the Feeder zones to the Southeast. we're also going to be testing it to the Northwest a bit, as well but still around the middle of the Eagle Area trend.

Goldfinger:

I'm looking at the drill plan map and I see holes 25 and 26, where you're sort of drilling an undercut to hole 20 from last year at the 020 zone. But then according to the interpretation on this drill plan map, you intersected a new feature, that was intersected in hole 23, and in hole 24.

Did you intersect that same feature in 25, and 26?

Robert Boyd:

Yes. In hole 26, we've got the eight gram intersection over 13 meters, which includes the higher grade interval of 10.4 gram over 5.4 meters. That's about 80 meters down hole, but that one looks like it's a down dip step-out from DDH 21-020, which is the original discovery hole in this area. In hole 25, that same 020 feature has been observed in drilling but for this interval we are awaiting assays. So, we're not going to be continuing to call this area the 020 target area, because we have so many targets that we are observing that we're now just calling all of it the Eagle South target area.

In the bottom of hole 25, we did intersect another zone with 3.94 grams over 7.2 meters that looks like the down dip extension of what we've got at hole 23 and 24, and that's about a 100 meter step-out down dip from 8.41 g/t gold over 12 meters.. On a section 125 meters to the southeast we got what looked like maybe it is the same relative position as these holes was the intersection of 4.16 g/t gold over 30 meters. So, we haven't quite linked that up firmly with what we had in the holes 23 and 24, but it could be related to that, or it could even be a different one.

Goldfinger:

So you're just calling this one big area now, you're not trying to break it down into different feeder zones, or features?

Robert Boyd:

We don't have enough drill density in there, to firmly link all these zones up, but we're seeing probably four potential gold zones, so far. What we are seeing is a close association of these brecciated quartz veins, with the mineralized margin of the veins. So, we see about four quartz veins in that 130 meter wide area, over 300 meters of strike, and on the margins of those veins. Not consistently, but in some places, that seems to be where the gold-mineralized breccias or cataclasite with good widths, are typically on the margins of these veins.

Essentially we've got at least four target areas in there based on drill intersections, but when you look at two margins to those target areas, that's about eight different possible feeder locations for these mineralized breccias coming out. Because especially when you're dealing with a wider vein that has a horizontal width of 52 meters, if you've got it mineralized on both margins, then they're separate targets. But if it's a four meter wide vein, mineralized in both margins, then you probably will lump that in as one target.

But anyways, we've got a plexus of feeder features down there, both in quartz veins, and mineralized margins to those veins, that suggest that there's likely to be a number of these vertical, or steeper dipping feeder features in there. That's good, because then you get potential for higher tonnes per vertical foot. We're still very early days, and trying to understand how all these mineralized intervals link up with each other. Time and additional drilling will help to continue to better our understanding.

Gold-Aspy Quartz Breccia (Cataclastite) - NQ Core - 6.19 grams/tonne Au over 0.85 meters - DDH22-027 @ 116.4m

Goldfinger:

My understanding of how an orogenic gold system like this was formed at the Reliance Project is that this was formed throughout multiple events, over many millions of years. So, this system is so rich, due to the fact there were so many events, and pulses of fluids that came up in this area. Is that a fair interpretation?

Robert Boyd:

Yeah. I think what we're seeing here is an early event of the wide quartz veins, that weren’t particularly well mineralized, as the first pulse in the gold mineralizing system with multiple quartz veins, and then those quartz veins, have in a second, or multiple pulses after that, brecciated and gold- mineralized along the early vein margins. The quartz veins are quite crackle brecciated, or busted up, and then the gold mineralizing event, comes up along the margins of those veins.

It is possible that the more resistant quartz veins versus the more easily sheared adjoining rocks next to the vein, creates a rheology contrast that opens up along the margins of the vein which creates a locus for the gold-mineralized breccias. So, it's hard to say how long the mineralizing event would've been, but often in these things, they could be over tens of thousands of years, or a million years. We don't see any evidence that these have occurred over multiple millions of years. All the science being done on the area today, indicates that the age of the mineralization at Reliance is similar in age to Bralorne.

So, what we're dealing with is a higher level epizonal equivalent of a deep, crack and seal type vein system like Bralorne. The Bralorne type of systems did not form in a single event. Most of these occur over multiple events, where the veins crack, and they seal again, and then there's pulses of gold mineralization that come up multiple times during that event. But it might be over a half a million, or a million years, but probably not more than that.

But when you get up at a higher level of a gold system, when that occurs in a brittle deformation regime, it results in breccias, and breccias are possibly caused by gaseous release from the hydrothermal system. Whereas, when it's deeper down, the veins crack, and then seal again, and the gold forms as bands in the vein, where the vein cracked, and introduced the gold along those internal cracks, and those cracks then get pressure sealed, without a gaseous release. So, the same kind of events are occurring, but in a Bralorne type system, they're in a deeper ductile regime, whereas at Reliance, they're in a brittle regime. So, the mineralization just occurs in pulses that are related to breccias, rather than crack and seal vein.

Goldfinger:

Interesting. From a mining economics standpoint, the Reliance Project has a lot of advantages. Number one, the mineralization begins closer to surface, and it seems to me that this would be amenable to an open pit style of mining. Would you agree with that?

Robert Boyd:

Everything we have in drill holes to date is relatively near surface, so it does have potential for a portion of this gold system to be mined by open pit . We have done no resource calculations and no economic evaluations so it is early to speculate on the mining method. We're starting to move into the underground mining type depth when you get intersections greater than 100 meters below surface. So, then it's a matter of what your strip ratios are, and what your tonnes per vertical foot are, as to what justifies open pittable, versus underground mining and we really haven’t determined that yet.

Goldfinger:

Endurance announced 4 holes in this news release today. So that means you have an additional 9 holes completed as of the end of July that are pending assays.

Robert Boyd:

Yes. Drilling is active so the hole count increases every week

Goldfinger:

And what are you seeing, in terms of turnaround times from the labs now?

Robert Boyd:

It's still pretty good, but turn-around time is a matter of when we deliver it to the lab. We should be getting results pretty consistently since we ship the samples to the lab biweekly. We have sent over 35 shipments to the lab this year. We expect to see steady results coming in now from this diamond drilling, over the next several months.

With the large target area highlighted in today's release we're definitely seeing multiple mineralized zones, and multiple veins in this system, and all of this will result in a lot of cut core in bags to the lab. So far assay results and visuals of quartz arsenopyrite breccia indicate encouragement, and the fact that the system is strong, and continues at depth.

Goldfinger:

To summarize, the system is continuing to exhibit strength at depth, and to the southeast. And you're interested in also testing it to the northwest. Is there anything in particular that has you interested in the northwest? Is there any new information that you've gotten, that has you interested in the northwest?

Robert Boyd:

Well, the only testing we did in the middle part of the Eagle trend was some channel sampling and RC drilling in the first phase of RC drilling on the property. The original channel sample ran about six grams over 13 meters on surface. We drilled under that with the RC rig and got some narrower intersections near the top of the structure that were encouraging, but nothing near the width that we got on the channel sampling.

So, that was a bit of an enigma for us. We didn't understand why that occurred. But now that we're starting to understand what's happening in this larger target area, we feel that we should diamond drill that Eagle South area . Those early RC holes never went across the full target area to test the entire width potential for multiple targets like we are highlighting in the release of today.

So, there's a big gap of knowledge in that area, between where our hole 21-020, and that area at Eagle South or about ½ way in the Eagle Area trend. So we want to now put drill holes right across, and test into that area. We had a hint of something down there, at the very bottom of hole number 23, with an intersection of nine and one half grams over 1.6 meters. It was pretty interesting down there. It seems to be in the right location for the extension of the system we were seeing at the 020 trend.

So, that together with the fact that our RC chips also intersected silicification in that area, for which we never got core intersections. Thus, we suspect that these quartz vein systems continue in that direction, and now we want to find, and understand them a bit better, by testing with diamond drilling

So, there's a gap in there that we want to identify, and test a bit better. It's got potential to generate drill intersections in there too, and we'd test it right across the full Eagle South Target Area, which has not been tested across its full width.

 

Goldfinger:

So, you're drilling a hole, I'm guessing it's like hole number 38 or 39, that's up there, towards the end.

Robert Boyd:

Yeah, we won't be showing the locations of those holes until a future release. There's still holes that we haven't talked about, that aren't in this update, that will eventually test that area that remains open as shown with the arrows on the figure in today’s release. These will explore and define the Southeast extension, but new drill pads need to be established to the Southeast. Once we have those drill pads set up, then we'll come back up, and test the Southeast extension. 

Goldfinger:

What's the furthest Southeast that you've drilled to date? What's the hole number, and approximately how far of a step out is that from hole 20?

Robert Boyd:

Well, hole number 36 shows on our plan map of today, and it tests to the Southeast, past our really good and nearby RC drill intersection, that had about 30 meters of 3.9 grams, the furthest RC gold intersection to the southeast. . Also, we've got hole number 37, hole number 35 and hole number 36. And then there's one other hole between 36 and 37 not shown on the figure of today for which we are awaiting assay results. 

We don't have assay results for any of those holes yet. But, the open arrows indicate that based on observations the Eagle South Target Area remains open to grow in this direction, and the feeder target area would cover that area as well. So, now we need to step up, and create drill pads in in that area, which is in progress. 

Goldfinger:

So, if we go back to the surface sampling work that you did last year, where you sort of identified these E-5, and E-7 zones, is that the area that you're drilling to the southeast?

Robert Boyd:

Yeah. We have drilled the hole number 37, which was drilled approximately under E-7 and near the good RC hole with gold over 30 meters.

So, yeah, we'll be testing those, and that's the furthest we have setups right now. We're moving down the hill, testing to the Northwest, and we'll come back after we create these setups for the drilling.

Goldfinger:

That brings me to just how exceptional the results have been so far at Reliance. All the evidence here, the last two years of work that you've done at this project, the results are exceptional, really no point in trying to understate it. I've followed hundreds of junior mining companies over the last decade or so, and I think Endurance has got to be in the top five to be quite honest, in terms of the results, quality of the results, the consistency of the results, and how quickly you've advanced this project and your understanding.

Robert Boyd:

Yeah. It's an important point, because it wasn't even a year ago that we took our first soil sample out of this area. It was only in October of last year that we prospected up there and found the E-7 gold prospect at surface.

Goldfinger:

Endurance has moved pretty quickly, and you've done it with a relatively modest budget. I'm seeing some companies blow through $10 million in six months like it's nothing, with nowhere near the results that you guys have put out. So, that brings me to the next question, which is, is there any thought of, "We need to add another rig, we need to add some more manpower to test the full extent of this." Because you're operating as a relatively small company so far, and you're doing a great job. Do you want to just keep going at this pace, or is there any thought of adding some drills?

Robert Boyd:

Well, there is always an opportune time to start adding rigs, and it's when we can start dedicating a rig to deeper drilling when we have to dedicate a rig to a certain pad that does not interfere with other rigs on the hill side. So, we have a logistical problem as we explore this system with relatively shallow drill holes. When we're up in this area, with the steeper slopes that we're dealing with, and the safety issues of equipment working upslope above other crews on the hill below we have limited ability to add rigs. 

We're just testing this near surface right now and trying to find the edge of the system near surface, and eventually demonstrate the requirement and areas to target the exploration of this system at depth. Once we do that, then we can start stepping back with drill pads, where we can dedicate another rig just to that pad or area of pads. And yeah, there is going to be a time that we can do that, and I think that's likely to be after this current phase of drilling in the Eagle area and proving with assay results that this system continues at depth. Where we're likely to look at maybe doing that, might be starting in late fall, is when we might have the ability to make a decision to start moving to multiple drills, to start chasing this system at depth.

And so, there is a time for that. But as I said, we're only a year away from our first soil sample up in this area. So, let's understand the system near surface before we start building up the exploration program. The worst thing I've seen done, in my experience, is the pressure to drill, where people waste money, and then waste money, because you're being forced to drill, because people want multiple drills on a project where you logistically can't handle it, or geologically can't justify the drilling. And so, you end up putting drills in locations that aren't the optimal locations, because that's the only place you can logistically do it.

There's going to be a time to do this, and I think the time is once we go through this phase now where we understand it, and then we start creating the setups, in the hanging wall to start chasing this in depth.

Goldfinger:

Right, that makes a lot of sense.

Robert Boyd:

Then you can dedicate a drill over in the hanging wall area, because you'll put five or six holes, that might be 400 or 500 meters each, on one setup, and you can just leave a drill up there, and you could leave a drill at a different location, that's doing something similar in a different area of the system.

You can access, have the drillers, and everybody can access up and down the road, and not have to try and get past a drill on the road, which is what we've got right now.

EDG.V (Weekly)

Goldfinger:

So, I've got two more questions. The first one is, do you plan on putting together any 3D models, in the presentation, or have a separate presentation showing the 3D model of the deposit, or the deposits?

Robert Boyd:

It's a good question, because we're talking about concepts here, and concepts can be hard to communicate. We're working on it, but a schematic model and sections may be included in our next release. That might be a couple weeks from now, or when we get the next set of results, that opens it up to the Southeast, and then we can start putting a section together there.

We are also discussing a schematic model, and we're working on that as well, but we don't have something we could provide for ease of reference to everybody this week. We're just trying to unravel this ourselves. We've been scratching our heads, trying to understand the relationships of all these different zones and geology, and the consistency of core logging and descriptions is another challenge, when you've got really mucked up rocks like this, one person describes it as this, and the other describes it as that, but you have to pull out the holes, when you're seeing something in one hole, and go back and look at how it was logged. There's a lot of this kind of stuff, as you unravel the story. And then get consistency.

So, we're just unraveling that now. We're only a month into diamond drilling, where we can actually see the geology in this area, and we're just unraveling that story right now. But, whatever it is, we're seeing a system that's going to be producing multiple intersections with good potential for vertical continuity here, and maybe they'll all coalesce into one bigger vein system, or something like that, at depth. We don't know, because these epizonal orogenic systems are known to evolve into something different as you chase them at depth. Fosterville was a good example, where it changed its characteristics at depth, and moved into a more visible free gold gold system, with higher grades. We won't know until we start testing it a lot more with drilling.

At Imperial, we've had a drill intersection that extends maybe 200 meters below surface, and the Eagle Zone is about 400 meters vertically above the Imperial Zone at surface. So, we already have an indication that there's 600 meter vertical continuity to this orogenic system with similar mineralogical characteristics throughout. That is, quartz catalastite and quartz fragment rich breccias, over wide intervals that carry gold and exist over that 600 meters vertical extent.

At Eagle, we've only tested it down perhaps about 100 meters vertically below surface now with today's results. Prior to this all of the first holes we're getting gold intersections no more 50 meters below surface. If you assume the system hasn't been rotated in any way, then Eagle itself has potential for another 500 meters to be followed down the feeder structures.

Goldfinger:

That's really exciting. It seems that Endurance is 100% focused, as it should be, on the Reliance Project. Reliance is clearly where your focus is, and it should be, 100%. You have a few other projects in the portfolio. In particular, the Elephant Mountain Gold Project in Alaska and the Bandido Rare Earths Project in the Yukon. I'll tell you right now the market is not giving you any value for either of those projects. The market valuation is 100% based on Reliance, and I don't even think the market is fully valuing that project. And maybe that'll change here soon, but regarding these other projects, do you have any thoughts on what you could do with them? Because each one is a quality project, it just needs to be worked on.

Robert Boyd:

Yeah, I'm particularly frustrated that Elephant Mountain, in Alaska is not getting the attention that it deserves. This project requires a two to $3 million program out of the gate. So, I would like to figure out what we can do to get value out of Elephant. For some reason, Alaska is a very difficult environment to raise money on, despite the endowment of Alaska, the fact that we are on state mining claims, and the fact that we had very good results in some of our initial drilling up there. We have reached the stage where we've just got to do grid drilling for a bulk tonnage, low grade type gold system, and hope you're going to get a higher grade feeder target there as well during this campaign.

But it's a big system. We got six kilometer-scale targets that need a lot of drilling. But, if I was raising money right now, based on where our share price is, Reliance is much better value, and we can generate gold discovery ounces at a very low unit cost at Reliance. Whereas I might spend $3 million in drilling for a large tonnage low grade system, but your cost per ounce of discovery is likely to be higher, but still decent in Alaska. So, I feel that if I had to balance, and focus our energy, we've got to focus on Reliance, where we can deliver discovery ounces at a very low cost per ounce, which more than justifies dilution to do that.

Goldfinger:

It seems to me that Elephant Mountain is a good candidate for a spin out, to either another company, or to a spin co. And obviously, you need to work out the details of what that would look like, and the value it would generate for shareholders, but that seems like a good spin out.

And then obviously the rare earths project, Bandito, if there's a rare earths bull run again, then obviously it's a great candidate to raise some money, and do some work there, or to spin it out as well. But I was just wondering what your thoughts are. It's probably not costing you a whole lot to hold those projects on your books, and they could be very accretive to shareholders at some point in the future.

Robert Boyd:

We have a very low carrying cost on the Bandito Rare Earths project. Whereas Elephant does have a higher holding cost, both an underlying deal, and the annual state claim maintenance payments. So, there is an annual holding cost for Elephant but it's reasonable, and affordable for us at the present time. We're permitted for drilling on the Elephant Project, so we hope we can arrange for this project to see a drill program through a strategic arrangement ahead of the 2023 season.

We are not permitted for drilling on the Bandito Rare Earth Property. So, strategically, the thing to do for us is to focus our energy on getting the permits that are required on Bandito, so it makes it easier to look at our strategic options for that project. We may also complete some early stage evaluation work and airborne geophysics. There's no sense spinning it out, if you can't get in there and drill holes to test it. There is value in this rare earth project if you raise funds to immediately go in and drill test. And so, we're looking at the strategic merits of doing that, but it is in an area of the Yukon where recently it has been difficult for companies to get drill permits due to land claims uncertainties. These efforts are continuing.

Goldfinger:

Thank you very much for your time Robert, I look forward to continuing to closely follow Endurance and I wish you the utmost success. 

Disclosure: Author owns EDG.V at the time of publishing and may choose to buy or sell at any time without notice. Author has been compensated for marketing services by Endurance Gold Corp.


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