Rosebud project, like in ‘Citizen Kane,’ reveals another secret

New drilling by Canadian explorer Blossom Gold (TSX: BGAU) at its Rosebud open-pit, heap-leach project in Nevada points to broad mineralized zones around areas of historical underground mining.

Hole BG26-027 in the south zone cut 26 metres of 0.643 gram gold per tonne from 132.8 metres depth and 28 metres of 1.682 grams gold from 170.9 metres downhole, Blossom said Wednesday in a statement. Hole BG26-023 in the southwest zone cut 8.9 metres of 0.757 gram gold per tonne from 105.8 metres.

Toronto-based Blossom is working to complete surface and underground drilling at Rosebud — a former gold producer that was jointly operated from 1997-2000 by Newmont (NYSE, ASX: NEM; TSX: NGT) and Hecla Mining (NYSE: HL) – in next year’s first quarter ahead of an updated resource. It has drilled almost 60% of the planned 24,000-metre drilling campaign.

“These results continue to demonstrate the scale of the mineralized system at Rosebud as well as what wasn’t mined underground,” CEO Rick Winters said in the company’s statement. “We are open and expanding in the northeast and southwest zones and have yet to drill the northwest zone.”

New name

Blossom’s predecessor company, Investmin Resources, acquired Rosebud for $35 million (C$49 million) upfront, a 1% net smelter royalty and deferred payment if a silver stream is used in project financing. Investmin changed its name to Blossom and began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange in February.

Rosebud holds 70.8 million inferred tonnes grading 0.62 gram gold per tonne and 6.49 grams silver for contained metal of 1.29 million oz. gold and 13.39 million oz. silver, according to a December 2025 resource.

Other drilling highlights released Wednesday include hole BG26-024 in the south zone, which cut 25.3 metres of 0.864 gram gold from about 160 metres depth, and hole BG26-030, which intersected 115 metres grading 0.553 grams gold from 1812 metres. That included about 53 metres of 0.860 gram gold from 197 metres downhole.

Eight targets

Located about 350 km east of Reno, Rosebud covers 7 sq. km and is accessible year-round along all-weather roads from the town of Winnemucca.

In its previous incarnation as an underground mine, Rosebud produced about 400,000 oz. gold and 2.3 million oz. silver. The material was trucked about 200 km to a Newmont oxide mill.

Blossom’s exploration work is focusing on eight identified targets to add ounces to the mine plan both near-surface and at depth on the Rosebud claims.

Four rigs

Crews at Rosebud are now drilling with four rigs. They will be shifting to more reverse circulation drilling to enhance productivity, Winters said.

Blossom is seeing “continued evidence for extensive gold mineralization to the southwest of the underground workings, and early signs of near-surface mineralization in the northeast zone,” exploration VP John DeDecker said.

“Our most recent drilling targeting the east mined zone and the area between the south and east mined zones shows a broad zone of mineralization consistent with that intercepted in the south mined zone that we eagerly await assay results for.”

Blossom shares fell 1.1% to C$1.85 Wednesday morning in Toronto, valuing the company at about C$243 million ($174 million). The stock has traded between C$1.44 and C$2.73 in the past year.