>>>With its large and growing gold deposit, International Tower Hill stands near the top of the list of prospective take-over targets. But it won’t be sold cheap, because there’s obviously lots of gold remaining to be found at Livengood. So ITH remains a strong buy at current price levels.<<<
• International Tower Hill Mines Ltd.
(THM.NYSE-A; ITH.V; C$3.25) has reported the first drill results from its 2009 winter drilling at Livengood in Alaska and announced an expansion to this already ambitious gold exploration program.
Hole 110 returned 206 meters of 1.40 g/t gold (including 38.1 meters of 3.08 g/t), confirming the thickness and higher grade of the Core Zone. Hole 109, drilled on the southwestern extension target of the Core Zone, returned 38 meters of 1.23 g/t gold and 18.3 meters of 0.92 g/t gold. Both holes ended in gold mineralization, as did many of the 2008 drill holes.
ITH also released assays on two holes drilled in the northeastern portion of the Core Zone. Hole 112 cut 100 meters of 1.11 g/t gold and 17
meters of 0.97 g/t gold, while Hole 111 intersected 68 meters of 0.59 g/t gold.
Significantly, Hole 112 confirmed the presence of a second, lower thrust fault and hit strong alteration and gold mineralization at the bottom of the hole. This suggests there may be another, higher-grade center developing in the northeastern area that’s similar to the main Core Zone. We’ll know more later, as ITH plans to drill this target again as the program progresses.
Buoyed by ongoing positive drill results and a $10-million bought-deal financing, ITH more than doubled its 2009 exploration program to 40,000
meters from 16,000 meters. ITH says the expanded program will enable it to double the drill tested area, which stands at about two square kilometers of the 12-square-kilometer Main Gold anomaly. The company plans to test deep, high-grade feeder targets and start testing other district-scale targets at Livengood.
This year’s drilling program will have a winter and a summer phase and, after the winter drilling, ITH plans to work up an initial economic assessment that should be ready in July. At that point, three drills should be fully engaged at Livengood. My bet is that they will still be turning out news and outstanding results.
With its large and growing gold deposit, International Tower Hill stands near the top of the list of prospective take-over targets. But it won’t be sold cheap, because there’s obviously lots of gold remaining to be found at Livengood. So ITH remains a strong buy at current price levels.