Fortitude Gold [OTCQB:FTCO] has provided further details on its already intriguing drill results out of its East Camp Douglas exploration this week. The Nevada miner said it had expanded its mineralised lithocap target, with intercepts including 4.57 metres grading 5.24 g/t gold, within 15.24 metres grading 1.87 g/t.
The company is a US-based gold producer which targets projects with low operating costs, high margins and strong returns on capital. Its strategy is to grow organically, remain debt free and distribute substantial dividends to its investors. It Nevada mining unit consists of five high grade gold properties located in the Walker Lane Mineral Belt as well as a sixth high-grade gold property in west central Nevada.
Fortitude’s Isabella Pearl gold mine, which is located on the Isabella Pearl mineralised trend, is currently in production. The company also owns 100% interest in East Camp Douglas which covers an area of 5,571 acres consisting of 289 unpatented claims, 16 patented claims, and additional fee lands in Mineral County, Nevada.
Fortitude Gold said it has completed a program of reverse circulation drilling at the East Camp Douglas D2 Cliffs lithocap target. Most cyanide leach assays were in excess of 80% gold recovery. This suggests the mineralisation is oxidised and amendable to cyanide leach processing methods.
Why this lithocap structure is of interest to Fortitude Gold
The lithocap is an expansive 1.5 kilometer by 1.0-kilometer geologic structure that has the potential to host a significant near-surface gold deposit. Lithocaps are stratabound alteration domains that are laterally and vertically extensive and typically have steeply dipping structural roots with significant lateral fluid flow during formation.
The lithocap structure at the south end of Fortitude’s East Camp Douglas property remains of particular interest, as surface samples grading as high as 31 g/t gold have been taken around the eroded margins of this large lithocap which conforms with extensive lateral fluid flows during formation.
This reverse circulation drill program follows up on Fortitude Gold’s June 2021 maiden core drill program which returned multiple mineralised intercepts including 17.9 meters grading 1.29 g/t gold.
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Attractive widths of gold mineralisation
The results help to build an understanding of the structural setting of the D2 Cliffs target within this large lithocap. Fortitude Gold said it had intercepted attractive widths of gold mineralization in 94% of the holes drilled at D2 Cliffs and company management is planning to continue exploring this extensive target.
This one target is only about 5% of the lithocap area within which Fortitude Gold has identified numerous additional targets to test. Its current geologic model interprets high angle structures at East Camp Douglas feeding this system which may have trapped significant potential gold-bearing fluids beneath the impermeable lithocap structure.
Fortitude Gold said the latest set of results has exceeded management’s expectations. The lithocap is considered to be very large and the latest drill programs were initially targeted to understand its structure.
“We have been fortunate we intercepted mineralisation so early in its exploration with this latest drill program consistently intercepting mineralisation in 94% of the holes,” said CEO Jason Reid. “We hope to continue to expand on these great results which could lead us to the feeder of this system whereby both the feeder and the lateralised zones could potentially become a large, bulk tonnage gold deposit.”
