ESGold (CSE:ESAU) has completed an expanded geophysical survey and updated its 3D geological model at the Montauban Gold-Silver Project in Québec, Canada.
The model covers about 70km² and integrates 1,637 drill holes, 1,707 regional multi-element samples, historical assays, lithology, structural interpretation, and regional mapping.
CAUR Technologies completed the phase two ambient noise tomography (ANT-2) survey across the northern portion of Montauban, deploying 200 three-component geophone stations with 400–600m spacing.
Data collected over 32 days generated a shear-wave velocity model covering depths from about 86m to 1.2km below surface.
Geomatic World developed the updated model using Leapfrog Geo, incorporating the ANT interpretations and 90 additional historical drill holes.
CEO Gordon Robb says ESGold will use the integrated model to rank potential exploration targets beyond the historical mine area.
“We now have a property-scale model that allows us to systematically rank opportunities and make more informed decisions about where we deploy exploration capital,” Robb says.
“With drilling already underway around the historic mine area, this work provides the foundation to expand our exploration focus across a much larger portion of the property.”
Model informs exploration planning
The ANT interpretation identifies broad, near-horizontal low-velocity layers and narrower, near-vertical corridors trending at about 020°.
ESGold interprets Montauban as a gold-silver volcanogenic massive sulphide system with its mineralised geometry affected by folding, faulting, and deformation.
The company says these processes may have displaced, repeated, or stacked geological units and mineralised horizons beyond the historically mined lenses.
However, the ANT features are not interpreted as mineralisation on their own. The model also does not demonstrate continuity of known mineralised bodies into the expanded northern survey area.
ESGold identifies the southern, eastern, and southeastern corridors as priority areas based on coincident geological, structural, geochemical, and geophysical indicators. The company describes the northern ANT-2 area as comparatively underexplored.
ESGold Director André Gauthier, a geological engineer, says exploration targets will require support from several datasets.
“The key exploration question is not simply whether a geophysical anomaly exists, but whether favourable lithology, structural architecture, geochemical vectors, and geophysical observations converge in the same volume of rock,” Gauthier says.
ESGold says it plans further database validation and target refinement before ranking areas for follow-up drilling. Initial drilling would focus on targets supported by multiple datasets, including those within the southern and eastern corridors.
The exploration work is progressing alongside commissioning of Montauban’s permitted 1,000-tonne-per-day processing facility. ESGold recently received a Falcon gravity concentrator and industrial thickeners, as previously reported by Mining.com.au.
ESGold is a Canadian pre-production mining company advancing construction and exploration at the Montauban Gold-Silver Project, about 120km west of Québec City.
Write to France Pinzon at Mining.com.au
Main image: ESGold
