Vancouver -- January 9, 2012 -- Endurance Gold Corporation (EDG -- TSX.V, "Endurance") is pleased to announce that Endurance has acquired an option to earn 100% ownership in the Elephant Mountain property in Alaska, USA. The Elephant Mountain property is located in the Rampart-Eureka-Hot Springs placer gold mining district near Eureka, Alaska. The property can be accessed by road from Eureka, a placer mining area located about 76 miles (123 kilometers) west of Fairbanks.
Between 1989 and 1992, the Elephant Mountain property was explored for gold by Placer Dome, Inc. ("PDI"). According to the USGS Alaska Resource Data Files ("ARDF"), PDI identified a gold-arsenic soil geochemical anomaly over the intrusive that extends for at least 6,000 feet and up to 1,500 feet wide, with peak values in soil samples up to 1,540 parts per billion gold. During that time, PDI completed extensive trenching and ten (10) drill holes. The best of the PDI drill holes returned an average grade of 0.015 ounce per ton gold (0.514 grams per tonne gold) over a width of 326 feet (99.4 metres). In the drill holes, gold mineralization is associated with arsenopyrite and native gold related to quartz veinlet stock-work, in silicified and sericite altered intrusive. The intrusive host is a Cretaceous-aged diorite to granite pluton that intrudes quartzite, siltstone and shale. Subsequent to the PDI exploration program, North Star Exploration Inc. completed additional soil sampling and drilling in the intrusive and also encountered anomalous gold in silicified granite.
The Elephant Mountain area is, in part, drained by Eureka and Pioneer Creeks. Alluvial gold was first discovered in Eureka Creek in 1898 and both Eureka and Pioneer Creeks and their small tributaries are two of the most significant alluvial gold bearing creeks in the Eureka-Hot Springs gold district.
The Elephant Mountain property is also located about 47 miles (75 kilometers) west southwest of the pre-feasibility stage Livengood Gold Deposit. The Elephant prospect is interpreted to be a reduced intrusion-related gold system (RIRG) similar to the Fort Knox Mine, Ryan Lode, and True North deposits located in the nearby Fairbanks Gold Mining district in Alaska, as well as the Brewery Creek and Dublin Gulch deposits in the Yukon. All of these RIRG deposits are related to late Cretaceous-aged intrusive events within the Tintina Gold Province of Alaska and the Yukon, and are associated with historic placer gold mining.
The placer gold deposits, gold-in-soil anomalies, and wide drill intersections in intrusive indicate that the Elephant Property warrants a systematic exploration program of rock and soil sampling followed by drilling to confirm historic results and identify new exploration targets. A 2012 program is currently in the planning stages.
Under the terms of the letter agreement with the private vendor, Endurance can earn 100% interest in the Elephant Mountain property by completing a total of US$200,000 in exploration expenditures, US$200,000 in cash payments and delivering 400,000 Endurance common shares by December 31, 2017. The initial cash payment of US$2,000 is due upon regulatory acceptance of the transaction. The initial 25,000 share payment and an additional cash payment of $13,000 are payable to the vendor on finalization of a formal option agreement. The option is subject to a 2% net smelter royalty ("NSR"), and Endurance can purchase half of the NSR at any time. There is no finder's fee payable for this transaction.
The transaction is subject to acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange.
Endurance Gold Corporation is a company focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of highly prospective North American mineral properties with the potential to develop world-class deposits. The Company's long term objective is the discovery of major new precious or rare metals deposits, and its business plan offers shareholders exposure to several majority-owned exploration projects with significant discovery potential such as the Bandito Property in Yukon, and the Rattlesnake Hills Property in Wyoming, USA.
ENDURANCE GOLD CORPORATION
Robert T. Boyd
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT
Endurance Gold Corporation
(604) 682-2707, info@endurancegold.com
www.endurancegold.com
Robert T. Boyd, P.Geo. is a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 and supervised the compilation of the information forming the basis for this release. The original technical reports and data compiled and referenced by USGS for the ARDF preceded the implementation of NI 43-10 and furthermore, the original data and reports have not been reviewed by the Company. Therefore the data in the ARDF summaries should not be relied upon. Additional soil and rock sampling, and drilling will be required to confirm the historic results reported in this release.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. This news release may contain forward looking statements based on assumptions and judgments of management regarding future events or results that may prove to be inaccurate as a result of factors beyond its control, and actual results may differ materially from the expected results.