The company has expanded the original land position by nine times, most recently acquiring an exclusive option over the Imperial Gold Mine just 5km north-northeast from Excelsior’s project boundaries.

Mammoth Minerals (ASX:M79) has staked the land between Imperial and its existing holdings, taking full advantage of the geological setting around the mine, which the company has identified as holding Carlin-style gold mineralisation.

Managing director Glenn Poole said Imperial had a similar history of high-grade production and strong results from drill-advanced targets to Excelsior.

“The exploration completed to date has outlined multiple gold opportunities including a very high-grade target which starts at surface and has only been tested to a maximum depth of 150 metres below surface,” Poole said.

“Of particular interest in a regional sense is the external independent confirmation we have received that the Imperial Mine is a Carlin Type gold deposit.

“The knowledge base we have gained through exploration so far at Excelsior has given us a blueprint and exploration methodology to rapidly explore and evaluate this style of mineralisation.”

Poole said the company was finalising exploration plans, looking to integrate the new targets at Imperial within the broader Excelsior Gold and Blue Dick silver development strategy.

While production at the Imperial mine ceased sometime in the 1940s, several rounds of exploration were completed on the project by various explorers in the intervening years.

Production records are limited but indicate the mine produced at least 10,000 tonnes of ore at a grade of about 15g/t Au using cyanide ‘vat’ leaching.

Past explorers drilled 210 reverse circulation holes at Imperial, covering 6,542m.

The most notable results included:

  • 13.72m at 4.74g/t Au from 30.48m, including 3.05m at 17.2g/t from 32m;
  • 10.67m at 2.48g/t Au from surface; and
  • 28.986m at 2.23g/t Au from 2.05m, including 3.05m at 9.95g/t from 21.34m.

American Goldfields Inc also channel sampled several of the underground adits of the Imperial mine, targeting gold veins over a 64m-long zone in the upper adit and 160m-long zone in the lower. Results peaked at 0.76m at 237.51g/t Au.

Poole said the land between Excelsior and Imperial contained numerous shafts and interesting alteration features.

“The critical importance of this large, consolidated land package is having a first mover advantage for what appears to be a large district scale Carlin-type target,” he said.

“At Excelsior, the RC drill rig is continuing the infill and extensional program along the Buster Trend.

“In addition, field-based exploration across the Blue Dick Silver Project commenced in late February.

“The aim of this campaign is to establish the extent of surface mineralisation across the existing Blue Dick mine and newly staked and identified parallel trends associated with previous mining activities.”

Poole said the company was looking forward to providing further updates in the coming weeks, which will include assay results from ongoing RC drilling at Excelsior, further assays from sampling across the Blue Dick silver and gold-rich trends, and results from underground mapping and sampling across the new Imperial project.