Allegiant Gold adds drill to expansion program at Eastside

Allegiant Gold Ltd. [AUAU-TSXV], the new spin-out company comprised of the Western U.S. exploration assets of Columbus Gold Corp. [CGT-TSX; CBGDF-OTCQX], has added a second drill rig to the resource expansion program currently under way at Allegiant’s100%-owned Eastside gold project, located 32 km west of Tonopah, Nevada.

The goal is to double the pit constrained inferred resource, which currently stands at 721,000 gold equivalent ounces at the Original Zone deposit and reduce the strip ratio.

One drill rig continues to test the western extension of the Original Zone, which Allegiant successfully extended 300 metres to the west in recent drilling.

Highlights include drill hole 147, which returned 42.7 metres of 2.49 g/t gold, including 9.1 metres of 9.03 g/t gold.

The continuing drill program continues to test the western extension of the Original Zone, which still remains open.

A second drill rig has been added to test the southern extension of the eastern part of the Original zone, which also remains open.

The planned holes will step-out up to 400 metres from the southern edge of the currently defined Original Zone in an area of strong alteration where surface sampling has returned 5.76  g/t gold, the company said Friday March 23.  Further, the areas of drilling are currently classified as waste inside the pit outline, or just outside the southern pit layback. In addition to the west and south, the Original Zone also remains open to depth, to the east, and possibly to the north.

Drilling at Eastside, consisting of 20,000 metres in 48 core and rotary drill holes, is in progress and will continue in the third quarter of 2018. Allegiant plans to publish an updated resource estimate for the Original Zone by the end of 2018.

“The Original zone has the hallmarks of a very large gold system and is just one of many exploration targets that exist at Eastside.” Allegiant Chairman Robert Giustra has said.

Allegiant owns 14 drill-ready projects in the Western U.S., including 11 in Nevada. All were handpicked by Andy Wallace, a successful and highly experienced geologist.

His track record of success includes multi-million ounce gold discoveries including the Marigold, Pinson and Dee mines in Nevada. He is now CEO at Allegiant

Working through his private company, Cordex Exploration LLC, Wallace has assembled a portfolio of projects headed by the 100%-owned Eastside property which hosts an inferred gold resource of 721,000 ounces of gold, and the Bolo property (also 100%-owned).

Eastside also hosts an historical resource of 11.1 million tonnes grading 0.024 oz/ton gold (0.82 g/t), for a total of 272,153 ounces.

Subject to obtaining financing, Allegiant is planning to spend the next 12 months drilling 10 of the 14 projects in its portfolio.

In keeping with that plan, Allegiant recently closed a non-brokered private placement of subscription receipts that raised $4.2 million.

Allegiant shares jumped 3.57% or $0.02 to 58 cents on Friday. The 52-week range is 75 cents and 47 cents.