Premium finds gold under Friday-Petsite bulk tonnage deposit

The latest drilling on Premium Exploration‘s (PEM-V) Friday-Petsite gold project in Elk County, Idaho, has confirmed continuity of the high-grade gold zone below the bulk tonnage resource area.

Premium has recently released assays from three holes of a six-hole, 2,000-metre program.

Hole PFR2009-10 intercepted 198.4 metres grading 2.66 grams gold per tonne to 371 metres depth.

Hole PFR2009-11 returned 73.5 metres averaging 2.94 grams gold to 339.6 metres depth.

Hole PFR2009-12 returned 83.4 metres grading 1 gram gold per tonne to a depth of 365 metres.

Premium CEO Wilf Struck says these holes were the deepest the company has drilled at Friday-Petsite.

“These holes are the deepest holes drilled to date on the property and intercepted the mineralized zone up to 300 metres down dip from the bottom of the historic drill hole PC10,” Struck said in a statement.

PC10, the historic hole that Struck mentioned, returned 85.4 metres grading 3.81 grams gold per tonne.

Premium says the drill results support the current understanding of the geologic and structural controls to the mineralization and will be used to update and possibly upgrade the inferred resource estimate.

Current resources stand at 15.17 million tonnes grading 1.1 grams gold per tonne for 532,000 oz. gold with a cut off of 0.514 gram per tonne. The deposit is hosted in 350 metres of strike length down to a depth of 150 metres and is open along strike and at depth. Oxide ore is on surface and non-refractory sulphide ore starts at about 15 metres depth.

Including the six recently drilled holes, Premium will use the data of 22 holes for the updated resource calculation. Seven of the holes will be from the company’s first phase of drilling that was completed last August while other holes are from previous operators. Premium has drilled 13 holes on the project but another 192 holes have been drilled by previous operators.

Two of the three holes that have not been released yet are step-out holes south of the known strike – about 475 metres from PFR2009-11. The holes focus on a 1,100-metre geochem anomaly. They were drilled at a higher elevation and as a result are at a higher level in the mineralizing system, designed to intersect the structure associated with the Orogrande shear zone. The company says they intersected altered quartz monzonite and muscovite schist associated with the Orogrande zone, which is similar to the mineralized material in the first three holes.

Premium is also advancing the nearby Buffalo Gulch open-pit project. The company expects to produce 25,000 oz. gold per year once the project is permitted. The deposit is in the same Orogrande shear zone as Friday-Petside. Premium is currently updating the feasibility study and a historic resource estimate which put the deposit size at 95,000 oz. gold.

Premium shares rose 2¢ today to 48¢ each on a trading volume of 384,000 shares.