Thesis Gold drills 9.68 g/t AuEq over 16.52 metres at Lawyers, British Columbia

Thesis Gold Inc. [TAU-TSXV] reported the first drill results of the 2023 drill campaign that extends high-grade mineralization to a depth of approximately 400 metres at the Dukes Ridge deposit. The Lawyers gold-silver project is 100%-owned by Thesis Gold, following the company’s recent merger. The project, accessible by road in the prolific Toodoggone mining district, is contiguous with the company’s adjacent Ranch gold project, collectively creating a 325 km² land package.

Highlights: Assay results from three completed Dukes Ridge drill holes that intersected broad intervals of mineralization include drill hole 23DRDD001 that returned 45 metres of 1.03 g/t gold and 51.53 g/t silver, or 1.67 g/t AuEq (gold equivalent), beginning at 376 metres hole depth.

23DRDD002 returned 68 metres of 1.25 g/t gold and 65.65 g/t silver, or 2.07 g/t AuEq. 23DRDD003 returned 53 metres of 2.12 g/t gold and 104.95 g/t silver, or 3.43 g/t AuEq, including a 16.52-metres wide zone of 9.68 g/t AuEq.

These results are the deepest ever reported from the Dukes Ridge deposit and demonstrate excellent continuity in the high-grade mineralization at depth.

Additional 2023 drilling along strike and at depth below these results also encountered visually strong mineralization and alteration. Results from these holes are anticipated shortly.

The 2023 drilling at the Lawyers project is confirming high-grade mineralization greater than 200 metres beneath the base of the modelled Dukes Ridge pit shell, as defined in the 2022 preliminary economic assessment (PEA) by Benchmark Metals. The PEA evaluated an open-pit-only mining scenario.

The company sees an opportunity to incorporate this deep, high-grade mineralization into an underground mining scenario.

This season’s continuing drilling at Lawyers has focused on both the Dukes Ridge and Cliff Creek deposits, while at Ranch the company has drilled the Patti, Steve, Bonanza-Ridge, Thesis II, Thesis III and Bingo zones, with additional targets still to be tested.

Dr. Ewan Webster, president and CEO, commented: “We defined clear drilling objectives for our exploration program this year. At the Lawyers project, subsequent trade-off studies to the PEA underscored the potential to integrate higher-grade underground operations, taking advantage of the project’s favourable topography. Drilling at Lawyers was planned to maximize this approach with the possibility to access higher-grade material earlier in the mine schedule, optimize the strip ratio for open pits, and enhance the resource estimates for an updated project study. The assay results from the first three Duke Ridge drill holes revealed high-grade intervals that demonstrate we are delivering on those objectives, and we are particularly encouraged because Duke’s Ridge is the deposit closest to daylighting. We still have several holes pending, and the consistency of grades from visual mineralization is promising. So far, we’ve drilled over 24,000 metres of our company’s planned 50,000-metre season. These are just the initial results, and with ongoing drilling at both the Lawyers and Ranch projects, we look forward to sharing more updates in the near term.”

This drilling campaign continues to delineate gold and silver mineralization below the currently defined Dukes Ridge deposit and demonstrates that mineralization continues for over 200 metres below the open-pit mining scenario outlined in the 2022 PEA. The company is awaiting assay results for multiple holes that intersected visual mineralization below and adjacent to these results. Thesis is optimistic that mineralization at Dukes Ridge remains open at depth, indicating further potential for resource growth.

The primary focus of 2023 drilling at Lawyers is to confirm and expand the mineral resource below the modelled open pits. Deep, high-grade gold and silver have the potential to significantly improve project economics by allowing for an underground mining scenario that can be carried out independently or in concert with the open-pit operations.

Thesis Gold, following its merger with Benchmark Metals, is unlocking the combined potential of the Ranch and Lawyers gold-silver projects in the Toodoggone mining district of north-central British Columbia. A 2022 preliminary economic assessment for the Lawyers project alone projected an open-pit mining operation yielding 163,000 gold equivalent ounces annually over a 12-year span. By integrating the Ranch project, the company aims to enhance these figures and bolster the overall project’s potential. Central to this ambition is the 50,000-metre drill program, which aims to define the high-grade underground resource at Lawyers and augment the near-surface, high-grade deposits at Ranch.

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