Endurance Gold Corporation (EDG - TSX.V) reports its audited financial results and summary of activities for the year ended December 31, 2008.
This summary of financial highlights should be read in conjunction with the Company's 2008 audited consolidated financial statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis available on www.sedar.com and Endurance's website at www.endurancegold.com.
Financial Highlights
- The Company reported a net loss of $2,025,041 or $0.08 per common share in fiscal year 2008, compared to a net loss of $152,625 or $0.01 per common share in 2007.
- The net loss in 2008 is inclusive of a write-off of $1,732,166 (2007 - $48,005) in mineral property costs, a realized loss on sales of marketable securities of $3,070 (2007 -$nil), an unrealized loss on marketable securities of $136,332 (2007 - $25,000), and interest income of $17,166 (2007 - $45,196). The net loss in 2008 is also inclusive of a non-cash future income tax recovery of $196,500 (2007 - $225,196) that relates to the prior year's renouncement of flow-through expenditures to investors (see notes 6 and 11 to the audited consolidated financial statements). Excluding these other items and the non-recurring tax items, the net loss in the 2008 fiscal year would have been $367,139 (2007 -$350,012), an increase of $17,127.
- Working capital decreased to $93,514 at December 31, 2008 from $1,116,268 in 2007.
Summary of 2008 Activities
The Company incurred approximately $550,000 ($900,000 in 2007) in exploration expenditures in 2008. The Company's exploration efforts during 2008 were primarily focused on the Pardo Project in Ontario and the BQ Project in British Columbia. The following summarizes the significant events and transactions in the mineral projects during the period.
Pardo Project, Ontario
The Pardo Project is located 65 kilometres northeast of Sudbury, in east-central Ontario. The Company is earning a 100% interest in the property, subject to a 3% NSR, by making cash payments totaling $100,000 and issuing 200,000 shares by November 16, 2009. As of the date of this report, the Company has made or accrued cash payments totaling $60,000 and issued 100,000 shares at a value of $13,750 to three vendors (Duncan McIvor, the President and CEO of the Company, is a minority underlying vendor of the Pardo Property).
During the period May 27 through July 7, 2008, the Company completed a 41 hole, 973.3 metre diamond drilling program on the Pardo Property. The Pardo Property covers a large area of flat lying, Proterozoic age, pyritic quartz
pebble dominant conglomerates, which rest unconformably on Archean age metasediments. The best intercepts of gold mineralization encountered to date (3.5 gpt Au across 13 metres in surface channel sampling, and 1.67 gpt Au over 8.4 metres in vertical drill holes) is spatially associated with both pyrite mineralization and the unconformity. The property is comprised of 2,864 hectares, of which only a small portion had been drill tested prior to this program.
The drilling program was designed to test a series of north-south trending, strong Induced Polarization ("IP") chargeability anomalies over an area measuring 2 kilometres by 2 kilometres, in an effort to understand the potential size of the target horizon, as well as gain an enhanced understanding of the property scale stratigraphy.
Results from this year's program were summarized in the Second Quarter Management's Discussion and Analysis and in News Release 08-10, dated August 11, 2008. Important data generated by this year's drilling include;
- Thirty-three of the forty-one holes drilled on the property intersected the targeted basal conglomerate horizon. Thicknesses ranged from 0.87 metres to 32.64 metres. Pyrite content ranged from <0.5% to in excess of 15%.
- Drilling in several locations intersected an upper conglomerate horizon, separated from the basal sequence by a relatively thick, pyritic quartzite layer.
- Nineteen of the forty-one holes returned "significantly anomalous" gold values, defined as values in excess of 0.50 gpt Au.
- Thirty-six of forty-one holes returned "anomalous" gold values, defined as values in excess of 0.10 gpt Au.
A complete hole by hole summary of the location, depth, geology, and all analytical results are posted on our website at www.endurancegold.com, as is a 1:2500 scale map illustrating hole locations plotted on an IP chargeability plan map.
During 2009, the Company plans to complete on-going petrographic, petrologic and stratigraphic studies, to better understand gold distribution within the large sedimentary basin. A limited program of bulk sampling will also take place, in order to correlate grades for large sample with those returned from individual drill holes. That work will lay the framework for a geostatistical correlation of drill hole assays to contained gold, and assist in all future drill program planning.
The Company has been in discussions with several groups regarding the possible joint venture of the project, but to date has not concluded any such arrangement.
BQ Project, British Columbia
The BQ Project is located 25 kilometres northwest of Smithers, in northwestern British Columbia. Endurance was earning a 100% interest in the property, subject to a 3% NSR, by making cash payments totaling $70,000 (of which $32,500 has been paid) and issuing 250,000 shares (of which 100,000 have been issued) by September 27, 2008.
During the second quarter, the Company completed a four hole, 627.9 metre diamond drilling program on the property, which covers a large Eocene aged felsic intrusive, emplaced into a sequence of older epiclastic and volcanoclastic sediments. The results of that program failed to identify significant mineralization.
As a result of a combination of factors, including the inability to negotiate an extension of payments to the underlying vendors, the Company terminated its option in the third quarter and wrote off the carrying value of $1,005,824 in acquisition and exploration costs incurred on the BQ Property. The Company retains a 100% interest in ten claims totaling 4,123 hectares that were not subject to the option agreement. No exploration work is envisioned on those claims through 2009.
Subsequent Events
- The Company completed a non-brokered private placement of 8,000,000 Units at a price of $0.05 per Unit for gross proceeds of $400,000 with four directors, an officer and a consultant of the Company in March 2009. Each Unit consists of one common share and one share purchase warrant, each such warrant entitling the holder to acquire one common share of the Company for a period of up to twelve months from closing at a price of $0.10 per share.
- The Company, through its 100% owned U.S. subsidiary, Endurance Resources Inc., signed a Property Option Agreement with The Carter Land Company, whereby in consideration of US$24,000 (US$12,000 paid and US$12,000 due on or before August 17, 2009), the Company has the option to enter into a Lease Agreement on certain coal properties in Sandy River Magisterial District of McDowell County, West Virginia, on or before February 17, 2010. In connection with the option agreement, the Company agreed to issue 400,000 common shares as a finder's fee, payable in two tranches, 200,000 shares upon acceptance of the transaction by the TSX Venture Exchange, and the remaining 200,000 shares upon execution of the Lease Agreement, subject to an expenditure commitment of $335,000 on the property.
- The Company granted 1,700,000 incentive stock options to directors, an officer and a consultant of the Company, exercisable at $0.10 a share expiring February 24, 2014.
- The Company, through its 100% owned U.S. subsidiary, Endurance Resources Inc., acquired by staking an 100% interest in 45 claims in the Rattlesnake Hills, Natrona County, Wyoming, USA.
Outlook
The Company completed a non-brokered private placement in March, 2009 raising gross proceeds of $400,000. The funds will be used to advance the Carter Coal Property, where a drilling effort is expected to commence in May/June 2009, on receipt of all applicable permits. A portion of the funds will also be used to complete a first pass reconnaissance exploration program on the Rattlesnake Hills properties, in Natrona County, Wyoming, and for general working capital.
The Company will need to raise additional funds in the short term, both to significantly advance its property portfolio, and to meet all 2009 estimated G & A requirements. Additional funding would also allow the on-going review of potential new acquisitions, in a climate where numerous exceptional opportunities exist. The Company is working to secure those funds, both from conventional equity financing sources, and from private investors and major mining corporations. Failure to raise such funds on a timely basis could cause the Company to suspend its operations and eventually to forfeit or sell its interest in its properties.
ENDURANCE GOLD CORPORATION
Duncan McIvor
President and Chief Executive Officer
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT
Endurance Gold Corporation
(604) 682-2707, dmivor@endurancegold.com
www.endurancegold.com
The TSX Venture Exchange or any other regulatory authority has not reviewed, and does not accept responsibility for, the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.