It’s not often a company strikes paydirt by simply kicking the tyres on some old drill core. Still, Elk Range Mining has done just that, unearthing coarse visible gold in historical core from its Friday gold project 15 kilometres southwest of Elk City in Idaho, USA.

The visible gold was discovered during a systematic re-logging of core from a historic 2014 drill hole that had already delivered a spectacular intercept of 5.3 metres grading 26.54 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 131.86m, within a whopping 112.78-metre hit running 5.22g/t gold from just 24.38m.

Notably, the company believes the old core was not optimally analysed at the time. Now that the sample has been quarter-cored lengthwise, the mineralised interval has been exposed for a modern analytical workover.

The visible gold was identified at 137m downhole, right in the heart of the previously reported high-grade zone. Elk Range says a review of the data shows the original samples underwent a 50-gram fire assay. However, for coarse or nuggety gold deposits, a small sample size can under-report the overall grade if specks of gold are missed in the sample.

The company is now applying modern photon assay analysis, which uses a much larger 500-gram sample charge, to provide a more representative reading of the gold content. The results from the re-assay campaign are expected in late October or early November.

The discovery comes as the company’s maiden 2850-metre diamond drilling program at Friday gets into full swing, with the rig now operating on both day and night shifts. Importantly, the first programmed hole is designed as a parallel, or twin, hole to the historical hole where the visible gold was found.

The new hole is intended to verify the historical geology and grades before extending approximately 200m deeper into an area with limited previous drilling, testing the theory that the mineralised system continues to lurk at depth.

Finding coarse visible gold in the retained historical core is an exciting outcome from our systematic review of the Friday dataset, particularly given where it occurs and given that it wasn’t optimally analysed. The visible gold sits within the final metre inside an interval historically reported as 5.30 metres at 26.54g/t gold, and immediately adjacent to where we are drilling today.

Idaho is re-emerging as a hot mining destination, with major developments such as Perpetua Resources’ 4.8 million-ounce Stibnite gold project, 150 kilometres to the south, recently receiving key permitting and court approvals, underscoring that the state is open for business and drawing serious mining capital.

The Friday project comes with an extensive drilling database that points to a significant high-grade gold system. While not yet JORC-compliant, a foreign resource estimate for the old mine previously outlined 758,000 tonnes grading an impressive 5.91g/t gold for 144,000 ounces.

A significant advantage is the project’s brownfields status, boasting existing underground development and established site infrastructure, including the permitted 50,000-tonne-per-annum Orogrande processing plant and assay lab.

The previous owner tipped more than US$40 million (A$56 million) into the project and Elk Range says the plant could be restarted within 12 months, offering an efficient and low-capital pathway to production. This would let the company sidestep the usual time and capital-intensive work of establishing site access and facilities, allowing it to channel its exploration dollars directly into drilling and geological work.

While the Friday project is the initial focus, the company’s broader Idaho gold project also includes the Buffalo Gulch and Deadwood prospects, which host non-JORC-compliant resources of 140,000 and 59,000 ounces of gold, respectively. According to the company, the immediate area could potentially host several significant gold systems, adding to its district-scale ambitions along the prolific Orogrande shear zone.

With the drill rods turning around the clock and a fresh set of assays pending on historical core that has already thrown up some eye-watering grades, the market will likely be watching closely to see whether Elk Range’s modern techniques can teach an old dog some new tricks. If the re-assays come in hot, it may suggest the old-timers under-called it, significantly turbocharging the project’s potential before the company even tables its own first set of results.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au