Emperor Metals (CSE:AUOZ) has intersected 21.3m at 3.00 grams per tonne gold (Au) from 65m at its Duquesne West Gold Project in Québec, Canada.
The intersection begins about 45m below surface within the company’s conceptual phase one open pit. Other results from the latest assay batch include 27.9m @ 0.50g/t Au and 14.8m @ 0.90g/t Au.
Emperor has now reported results from 31 of the 66 holes completed during the 2025–2026 drilling program. These account for about 49% of the metres drilled and 36% of the assays expected from the broader exploration campaign, which also includes historical core resampling.
CEO John Florek says the near-surface intersection could support a higher-grade initial mining phase under a future Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA).
“This intercept strengthens our conviction that a higher-grade, near-surface resource can materially improve the economics of a future PEA by increasing the grade of the initial mining phase,” Florek says.
“More importantly, it supports our long-term strategy of defining a large-scale, high-grade open-pit gold project targeting average grades in excess of 2.0g/t Au.”
The completed program comprised about 20,479m across 66 holes, alongside 8,000m of targeted resampling from historical core. Results covering approximately 10,133m have been reported to date.
Emperor Metals says the drilling is testing mineralisation within the conceptual open pit as well as extensions along strike and at depth. The company has also identified free gold within the system, which it says had not previously been systematically targeted.
Duquesne West lies 32km northwest of Rouyn-Noranda in the Abitibi greenstone belt. The project hosts an inferred mineral resource estimate of 26.9Mt at 1.69g/t Au for 1.46Moz, reported in July 2025.
Write to France Pinzon at Mining.com.au
Images: Emperor Metals
