Endurance Gold hits high-grade step-outs at Reliance

Endurance Gold (TSXV: EDG; US-OTC: ENDGF) assayed high-grade gold outside the current resource at Reliance in southern British Columbia, strengthening the junior’s bid to grow one of the Bridge River camp’s newer discoveries.

The first assays from this year’s planned 8,000-metre campaign included 14.7 metres grading 7.67 grams gold per tonne and 0.13% antimony from 75.9 metres downhole in hole DDH26-128 at Eagle. DDH26-129, a 60-metre step out along the same trend, returned 12 metres at 3.07 grams gold and 0.03% antimony from 98.2 metres.

“Importantly, today’s high-grade intercepts were outside the current resource and pose a high potential of being included in a future updated resource,” Atrium Research analyst Ben Pirie said Wednesday in a note. “This is a strong start to the 2026 drill program for EDG.”

The company plans to begin a preliminary economic assessment this year, giving the next assays more weight as Reliance moves from discovery to development on a project just 250 km north of Vancouver. Endurance already has a high-grade inferred resource at Reliance in a former gold camp, and the new hits come from shallow ground the company wants to add to that estimate. The project, 4 km east of Gold Bridge, hosts 19.6 million inferred tonnes grading 2.3 grams gold per tonne for 1.45 million oz., including 15.6 million pit-constrained tonnes at 2.23 grams for 1.12 million ounces.

Pirie has a “buy” rating and 90¢ target on Endurance shares. Atrium receives cash from Endurance for 12 months of coverage.

Shares of the company dropped 5.5% to 42.5¢ apiece Thursday afternoon in Toronto, giving Endurance a $85 million (US$60 million) market capitalization. The stock has doubled in value over the past 12 months, trading between 19¢ and 90¢ in the period.

Eagle growth

DDH26-128 hit the Eagle zone 25 metres closer to surface than DDH22-027 of 2022, which returned 11.9 metres at 8.31 grams gold and pushed Eagle mineralization toward surface in ground outside of the resource. The hole also cut five lower veins between 118.1 and 161 metres down, ranging from 0.5 metre to 1.6 metres wide and grading 2.57 to 10.10 grams gold.

DDH26-129 was drilled from the same pad at a different angle, confirming Royal Shear-hosted mineralization along the Eagle trend. Endurance said true widths are estimated at 80% to 100% of core length.

Program push

Endurance started the 8,000-metre drill program last month with two diamond rigs. The first round aims to move near-surface ounces into the indicated category, grow the resource within the pit outline and test deeper high-grade extensions.

The company has completed seven holes for 1,899 metres at southern Eagle and started an eighth. All seven showed visible mineralization in previously undrilled ground, with assays pending for five Eagle holes that cut 11 mineralized structures from 2.1 to 10.5 metres long.

Imperial tests

At Imperial, Endurance has drilled two holes for 1,160 metres to test depth extensions. The first hole stepped 43 metres from DDH24-109, which returned 21.8 metres at 6.74 grams gold, including 12.4 metres at 10.11 grams. The second hole made a 55-metre step-out on the Royal Shear contact. Assays are pending for both.

Endurance plans to bring in a reverse-circulation rig later this year to test the Eagle Offset anomaly. It is also running metallurgical work to improve gold and antimony recovery.

Earlier test work returned 84.7% gold recovery to a marketable concentrate.