Founders finds gold-infused Donut target, Cupcake next at Antino project in Suriname

Founders Metals (TSXV: FDR; US-OTC: FDMIF) says assays from the Donut target show a significant discovery linking two zones at the Antino gold project in Suriname. The shares gained.

Drill hole 24DO07 cut 19 metres grading 14.2 grams gold per tonne from 196 metres depth, the company reported on Thursday. It followed recent drill hole 24DO06 returning 45 metres at 2.2 grams.

“These intrusion-hosted intervals come from unweathered rock and represent a major new gold discovery at Upper Antino,” Founders CEO Colin Padget said in a release. “There remain several other Upper Antino targets with similar geophysical and geochemical characteristics, including the Cupcake target.

Shares in Founders Metals gained 9.5% to $1.39 apiece Thursday afternoon in Toronto, valuing the company at $72.7 million. It’s traded in a 52-week range of 24¢ to $1.78.

Last month Founders reported that hole 23FR045 from the Froyo zone 800 metres across strike from Donut returned 9 metres grading 8.54 grams from 43 metres; 13 metres at 5.21 grams from 62 metres and 12 metres of 2.74 grams from 85 metres. The project’s highest grade so far was in an assay released in November showed 3 metres grading 99.51 grams including 1 metre of 231.92 grams from 25 metres depth.

Cupcake target

The new assay demonstrates the potential for high-grade gold mineralization similar to Froyo, but with additional broad, lower-grade gold around it, Padget said. Gold grades of up to 88.9 grams per tonne were reported in historical auger samples at Cupcake, he said.

The 238-sq.-km Antino is the South American country’s most advanced project on a property that’s produced 500,000 oz. of artisanal gold historically. Founders is drilling 30,000 metres as it advances towards an initial resource estimate next year followed by a preliminary economic assessment in 2026 and a feasibility study.

The project could rival Newmont’s (TSX: NGT) Merian and Zijin Mining’s Rosebel gold mines on the Guiana Shield in South America’s northeast. Iamgold (TSX: IMG; NYSE: IAG) produced 5.6 million oz. of gold at Rosebel from 2004 to 2021. Zijin bought it in late 2022 for US$360 million.

Donut’s gold-bearing drill cores show zones of intense silicification, sericitization and pyritization within a variably sheared tonalitic intrusive body, the company said. They show visible gold associated with extensional-type quartz and quartz-carbonate veining, it said.

Nana Resources holds a quarter of the project after Founders acquired the rest last year through an option with Orea Mining (TSX: OREA; US-OTC: OREAF). Previous operators drilled more than 32,000 metres historically.