Engineer Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX-V: EAU | OTC: EGMLF | WKN: A3EEVJ) announced that the 2026 Phase I exploration program is now underway on its 100% owned Engineer Gold Project, located 30 kilometres southwest of Atlin in northwestern British Columbia. The property comprises 18,319 hectares covering a 25 kilometre long contiguous claim block and hosts the historic Engineer Gold Mine, the TAG Property, the Wann River Prospect, and numerous additional mineral occurrences. The first phase includes soil and rock sampling at Engineer, soil geochemistry, and an in-depth core review and resampling at TAG. The company is fully permitted to follow with a Phase II program consisting of diamond drilling, excavator trenching, and induced polarization geophysical surveys in the Engineer Mine area. Phase II plans will be announced once finalized.
The Engineer Project hosts multiple styles of mineralization including high-grade epithermal gold-silver veins, polymetallic veins, and structurally controlled bulk tonnage style gold systems. At the Engineer Mine, Phase I is designed to expand high-grade gold mineralization and adjacent bulk tonnage targets along strike of previously identified structural corridors, Shear A and Shear B, which have been traced by geophysics and geochemistry for over 3 kilometres to the south of the past-producing mine. Work will include an expanded soil and rock sampling program.
At the TAG Property, 6 km north of the Engineer Mine, Phase I includes a rigorous core review and infill core sampling program. From 2006-2008, a total of 11,520 metres of diamond drilling in 69 holes was completed at TAG (Fekete and Simper (2009), Fekete and Skinner (2007); ARIS reports #30931 and #29581). Recent on-site core re-examination indicated that several drill intercepts crossing the mineralized trend were not fully sampled, and in some instances, samples were not collected adjacent to those hosting significant gold values. Once infill and expanded drill core sampling is completed, a detailed model of the TAG results will be produced to target areas for potential expansion of gold mineralization and to facilitate completing an updated resource estimate for TAG. Additional soil geochemical sampling will be completed at TAG, as prior sampling returned anomalous gold and silver values uphill from known mineralization, indicating potential for a subparallel second mineralizing structure.
The historic Engineer Gold Mine was a past-producing, underground gold-silver operation with historical production between 1910 and 1952 totalling approximately 14,263 tonnes grading 39.4 g/t gold and 19.5 g/t silver (BC Minfile 104M014). In 2011, a historical Inferred Mineral Resource was completed (Snowden, 2011, amended and restated in 2018, O’Brien et al - www.sedarplus.ca). The historical resource, based on a 5.0 g/t gold cut-off, gave an inferred mineral resource of 25,000 ounces of gold at a grade of 19 g/t. The company notes that a Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources, and it is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources. The historical estimate is provided for information purposes only and should not be relied upon.
The TAG Property is associated with a 6 km long structurally controlled mineralized system related to splays off of the Llewellyn Fault. Significant historical diamond drill intervals from TAG include: Hole TAG06-23 which assayed 1.7 g/t Au and 5.1 g/t Ag over 26.7 m (including 3.52 g/t Au over 4.7 m); hole TAG07-29 which assayed 1.3 g/t Au and 5.9 g/t Ag over 35.0 m; TAG08-51 which assayed 1.8 g/t Au and 7.4 g/t Ag over 24.3 m; and TAG08-59 which assayed 1.5 g/t Au and 8.05 g/t Ag over 42.1 m (Fekete and Simper (2009), Fekete and Skinner (2007); ARIS reports #30931 and #29581). The Wann River Prospect, located 4 km south of the Engineer Mine, represents a highly prospective, underexplored orogenic gold target. Historic diamond drilling of 17 holes returned significant intercepts, including hole WR030211 which assayed 11.3 g/t Au and 76.2 g/t Ag over 1 m, and hole WR040111 assaying 11.3 g/t Au and 94.8 g/t Ag over 1.0 m (Aspinall, 2011; BC ARIS Report #32478).
Linda Dandy, P.Geo., is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical content in this news release. The company looks forward to announcing Phase II plans once finalized.
