ESGold (CSE:ESAU) has completed more than 80% of its planned drilling at the Montauban Gold-Silver Project in Québec, Canada, as part of a district-scale exploration program across the historic mine camp.
More than 4,000m of drilling has been completed, with laboratory assays pending, the company says in its latest update.
The 5,000m drill program is designed to extend exploration beyond and below the historic mine workings at the Montauban property.
It forms part of ESGold’s dual-track strategy to advance gold and silver recovery from historical tailings while exploring for a potentially larger mineralised system at Montauban.
Initial drilling focused on the historical mine area, where several holes intersected former underground openings. More recent holes have extended southwards towards additional exploration targets.
Testing southern and deeper targets
According to ESGold, geological logging of the latest drill core has identified quartz veins, altered rock, and visible sulphide minerals.
One hole encountered sulphide-rich material, while two others intersected narrower quartz-carbonate veins containing sulphides.
The company plans to integrate these observations with historical mine records, geophysical surveys, and its own 3D geological model to refine targets for follow-up exploration.
“We are entering an exciting stage at Montauban as drilling takes us beyond the initial mine-area holes and into southern and deeper targets,” CEO Gordon Robb says.
“The veins, altered rock, and sulphides we are seeing give our team tangible and positive geological indications to pursue,” he adds.
Assay results remain pending and will be needed to determine the grades of any mineralisation encountered, ESGold says.
Tailings processing equipment nears delivery
Meanwhile, ESGold is progressing construction of its tailings processing facility at Montauban, with all remaining processing equipment either on site or in transit from China.
The company plans to recover gold and silver from historical mine tailings, with the material also containing recoverable mica.
According to ESGold, the fully permitted facility is designed to recover valuable minerals while stabilising and neutralising legacy mine waste.
The latest equipment shipments are expected to support the final stages of mill construction as the company advances its planned tailings reprocessing operation.
ESGold is a Canadian pre-production mining company advancing construction and exploration at its flagship Montauban Project.
Write to Jackson Chen at Mining.com.au
Main image: ESGold
